


The Solomon Project

by Lopadopalis



Series: Yggdrasil [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: "Let's get this party started.", 'Temporary', Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, As in secret organizations saving the world, Blood, Body Horror, Cabin Fic, Cabin in the Woods much?, Chaos, Clones, Clowns, Containment Breach, Crabs with saw blade-tails, Deus Ex Machina, Discount Texas Chainsaw Massacre Family, Dubious Ethics, Elevators Containing SCPs, Ghosts, Giant Spiders, Gore, Humanstuck, I'm Sorry, Jack-o'-lanterns, Killer Tree, Massacre, Mobile Task Forces, Multi, Possession, Psychological Horror, SCP Foundation - Freeform, Saving the World, Secret Organizations, So more like scorpion-crabs, Some SCPs too, System Purge, Temporary Character Death, Underground Facility, Vampires, Violence, Who put that button there, Why else would the Foundation be there?, Wolves, Yeah those guys are there, Zombies, human cloning, unicorn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:20:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 49,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25056868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lopadopalis/pseuds/Lopadopalis
Summary: In an alternate universe, the Archangel Foundation uses every resource at their disposal to contain the reborn gods of a long since dead world before they destroy said universe. Their methods are unethical at best.
Relationships: Aradia Megido/Equius Zahhak, Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Eridan Ampora/Feferi Peixes, Gamzee Makara/Tavros Nitram, Jade Harley/Nepeta Leijon, John Egbert/Vriska Serket, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam, Sollux Captor/Original Character(s), Sollux Captor/Terezi Pyrope, Vriska Serket/Original Character(s)
Series: Yggdrasil [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805818
Comments: 21
Kudos: 33





	1. The Solomon Project

**Author's Note:**

> Several of the first few chapters are in document format.

THE FOLLOWING FILES HAVE BEEN CLASSIFIED

**TOP SECRET**

BY ORDER OF THE ADMINISTRATOR

The Archangel Foundation exists with the sole purpose of protecting humanity from the following 16 entities, which are to be contained at all costs;

ARC-413-1 “The Azure Sky” Level 6 Risk

ARC-413-2 “The Lavender Sun” Level 5 Risk

ARC-413-3 “The Orange Crow” Level 5 Risk

ARC-413-4 “The Emerald Wolf” Level 2 Risk

ARC-413-5 “The Rust Clock” Level 1 Risk

ARC-413-6 “The Bronze Wind” Level 1 Risk

ARC-413-7 “The Golden Skull” Level 4 Risk

ARC-413-8 “The Scarlet Grove” Level 3 Risk

ARC-413-9 “The Sage Heart” Level 2 Risk

ARC-413-10 “The Jade Beast” Level 4 Risk

ARC-413-11 “The Teal Neuron” Level 5 Risk

ARC-413-12 “The Cobalt Spider” Level 2 Risk

ARC-413-13 “The Indigo Void” Level 3 Risk

ARC-413-14 “The Purple Laughter” Level 4 Risk

ARC-413-15 “The Violet Saint” Level 3 Risk

ARC-413-16 “The Fuschia Sea” Level 1 Risk

Reliable containment method for these entities is currently being determined. XX-Beta-12 is currently the best option due to its natural prisons.

Access Files?

 **[Y]** [N]

Accessing…

**The Solomon Project**

Act 1 - The Prototype Level 1 Access; Unrestricted

Act 2 - Where God Can’t See Level 2 Access; Restricted

Act 3 - The Children Level 3 Access; Confidential

Act 4 - The Second Foundation Level 4 Access; Secret

Act 5 - Containment Level 5 Access; Top Secret

Act 6 - How it Ends Level 6 Access; Cosmic Top Secret


	2. Act 1: The Proposal

LEVEL 1 ACCESS REQUIRED

Level 1 Access Code received…

Decrypting…

**PROJECT PROPOSAL: “Containment Zero-Alpha”**

**Project Date:** 3/6/2002

**Proposal Statement:**

_ To use the magic of XX-Beta-12 to our advantage to contain these entities. What better to contain them than the original magic that did so, in their first forms? _

**Requested Resources:**

  * _Thorns of Oglogoth_ (2) for reality puncturing
  * Torus-class gate (1) for portal containment
  * Cloning machine (1) for test subjects
  * Materials to construct an underground containment and testing facility
  * No fewer than 50 adult clones for testing purposes



**Project Details:**

_ Use requested resources to create a portal to XX-Beta-12 and contain the 16 Fallen Gods within the god-pits. Design an underground facility, build a capture zone above it. Clone 16 willing participants and use them as hosts. _

**Project Approval:**

_ Permission granted. _

  * The Administrator




	3. Act Two: Where God Can't See

LEVEL 2 ACCESS REQUIRED

Level 2 Access Code received…

Decrypting…

Six soldiers step through a portal to another world. This other world is XX-Beta-12, and these soldiers are members of the Solomon Project. Henderson is the team leader, Greer is the communications officer, and the other four, Wayne, Ledward, Brown, and Coleman, are all basic fire team members.

They step into the remains of a city, presumably Los Angeles. It’s deathly quiet, and the sky is dark. It’s not night, it’s darker somehow. There’s a pit directly in front of them. It’s surrounded by crosses and looks to be about 20 feet across.

“That’s new.” Brown comments.

“Yeah, what the hell? That wasn’t there last time.” Coleman wonders aloud.

“They were just wells, weren’t they?” Greer asks.

“Which means that something reshaped this place.” Ledward points out.

“How about we take a look inside, team?” Henderson asks.

Greer and Ledward stay above with the pulley system and ropes whilst Henderson, Brown, Coleman, and Wayne lower themselves into the pit on an infinite rope. It’s fascinating what trawling the universe of Tau-5 can get you. Anomalies are their thing after all.

“Descending past 1000 feet now.” Henderson says. He’s at the top of the rope, although far from the tip. His harness holds strong. Wayne is below him, then Brown, then Coleman.

“Copy that, sir.” Greer says.

“Still read us?” Henderson asks.

“Loud and clear.” Greer responds.

“Alright. Hey, Wayne could you drop us a flare?” Henderson asks.

“You got it boss.” Wayne responds, and fiddles for a moment. After a little bit of struggling, he draws a flare, lights it, and drops it into the pit. It whistles down the shaft, the red light disappearing into the darkness. The pit seems to be very deep.

“I did not expect that.” Henderson mutters.

“Hey Wayne, be more careful with that, you nearly singed off my hair.” Brown comments.

“Hey, you guys feel that?” Coleman asks as they descend past 2000 feet.

“Feel what?” Wayne asks.

“That… tingling.” Coleman asks. “In your brains.”

“Nope.” Henderson says.

“What’s his deal?” Greer asks over the comms.

“Just a strange sensation. Nothing more.” Coleman says.

They pass 3000, and the soldiers feel more uncomfortable. 4000, and they’ve gone silent.

When they hit 5000 feet, Coleman speaks. “Okay, it’s a bit of a pressure now.”

“I’m getting that too.” Brown adds.

Nothing comes of it, and then they’re at 6000. 7000.

“Jesus, how deep did these people dig?” Wayne wonders aloud, and then adds “ _ How _ did they even dig these?

“Who knows…” Brown says, his voice trailing off into the silence.

They hit 8000, and Coleman starts muttering to himself.

At 9000, his mutters become audible.

“I’m crying in silver.” he says. “I can hear the colours. There’s darkness in all directions.”

“Coleman? Hey, Coleman.” Henderson asks. No response, just ramblings.

“There are things in the forests. The trees are sharp like razor blades. The moon is falling, and the sky is tearing like wet paper.” Coleman mutters.

“What the hell?” Brown wonders aloud. “Coleman, hey Coleman! Come in, man.”

“Ancient is the light that dances in the sea. Darkness is every light.” Coleman says.

“What the hell’s wrong with him?” Wayne asks.

“He’s right you know; the skies are burning like sharpened glass.” Brown says.

“Ah crap, Brown too?” Wayne half-shouts.

“Greer, come in. Winch us up, something’s wrong with Coleman and Brown.” says Henderson. “Come in Greer!” his only response is static.

“The flak is strong and the gail is knives.” Coleman half-sings.

“The bees are burnt and the night is their hive!” Brown shouts.

“Repeat, Greer, come in, copy!” Henderson shouts.

“Sir, I think it’s getting me too!” Wayne shouts, and then adds “Explosive chairs.”

“Tear apart the ancient house,” Coleman says.

“Set the cacti ablaze,” Brown follows up.

“Greer, goddammit, copy!”

“Do you see that? Yes, yes, the stars are  _ talking _ !”

“Indeed I hear the cries of weeping leaves!”

“No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! Get out of my head!”

“Greer, for fuck’s sake, come in!”

“We are at the edge of existence!”

“The strings are unraveling!”

“GAAH! Get… out…!”

“Fuck!”

“At the edge of time all fades away and only,”

“And only,”

“And only… what?”

“What the…”

“And only,”

“And only,”

“No, no, no…”

“What the- below you, BELOW YOU! Coleman, for chrissake below-!”

“And only the Void remains.”

“And only the Void remains.”

“And only the-”

There’s a sudden jerk on the rope, and Coleman’s comms immediately go silent. Wayne gasps at the sudden interruption, jerked out of his state of mind. Something unseen ceases tugging on the rope, and works its way up through the darkness.

“Yeah sir, this is Greer, what is it?” Greer’s voice comes.

“Sssshhh…” Henderson whispers.

“Fuck, what the hell are you two doing!? Fuck! Can’t you see it!?” Wayne shouts.

“Climb, for god’s sake, climb the rope, winch us up, winch us up!” Henderson shouts.

“Oh, it’s beautiful.” Brown says.

“Only darkness.” Coleman mutters.

“Hold on, what are you doing here?” Brown asks. “Johnson? You’re dead!”

“Patricia, come back to me! Wait!” Coleman shouts.   
“What the hell is going on down there?” Greer asks.

“Just get us out of here!” Henderson shouts back. Greer’s response is to winch them up.

“Amy! Amy, I’m sorry!” Wayne shouts into the darkness.

“Only darkness.” Coleman mutters.

“My mind, it’s… sir, it’s unraveling…” Wayne wheezes out.

“We are complete.” Brown mutters.

“Only darkness.” Coleman mutters.

“Oh, so many teeth!” Brown shouts.

“So many-what? What are you talking about!?” Wayne shouts.

“Gah, what the hell?” Henderson groans.

“Only darkness.” Coleman mutters.

“There was something there, but I can’t remember!” Wayne shouts.

“It’s come to bless us with the gifts of gods!” Brown hisses.

Coleman suddenly cuts his tether and drops into oblivion.

“Ah, fuck!” Henderson shouts.

“C-captain? Hello?” Wayne asks. “Who are you? I can’t remember your name?”

“Wayne, not you too!”

“Wayne? I’m not Wayne. I’m Brown.”

“Don’t be stupid, I’m Brown!”

“I was definitely Brown two minutes ago!”

“Guys, there’s something below you, shine your lights!”

Coleman’s voice flickers to life again over the comms. “Onl-” is all he gets out before there’s a swift jerk and something snaps up Brown. It pulls on the rope, and drags the other two down.

“Cut the rope below you, Wayne!”

“Wayne? I’m not Wayne, I’m-”

“Just do it Wayne!”

“Who’s Wayne!”

“For god’s sake, look below you!”

“Below me, I-oh.”

“Cut it! Cut it!”

“AH-!”

Henderson cuts the rope below him as Wayne vanishes into thin air.

“God damnit.” he mutters. “This is a fucking disaster.”

“Sir, what the hell’s going on down there!?” Greer asks.

“Well, haha, the other three are dead, I’m sure.” Henderson says.

“What?” Greer asks, confused.

“Yeah, they’re gone. Swallowed up by… whatever. I figured it out.”

“Figured what out? What’s down there?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m pretty sure these pits still work, because whatever’s down here messing with our minds hasn’t left. It’s nearly 10000 feet down, maybe it was before we showed up.”

“What is? Henderson, slow down.”

“Can’t. My mind’s already breaking. I’m experiencing every moment of my life so far at once, and I can barely anchor myself, so I’ve gotta speak while I can.”

“Alright sir, go ahead.”

“These pits work, but they don’t do a good job of keeping these things’ powers away. ‘S probably they buried ‘em so deep. Couldn’t… let their powers extend up.”

“Right.”

“Yeah. Whatever this thing is, it’s something new. The pits work, but never use the one here. This thing… it doesn’t care. It will tear your minds to shreds when you get close to it. I can’t even… I can’t… what was her…”

“Beatrice, sir?”

“Yes, my wife. Tell her… tell her I love her.”

“Of course, sir.”

“This is it. This is my death. Don’t… send…  _ anyone _ … else… out… here.”

“Understood, sir.”

“No one else comes out here. Just don’t send anyone. It’s too dark. Only darkness.”

“I see, sir.”

“Only darkness.”

“Henderson?”

“Only darkness.”

“Sir?”

“Only darkness.”

Deep in the blackness of the pit, there’s the sound of a harness disconnecting.


	4. Act Three: The Children

LEVEL 3 ACCESS REQUIRED

Level 3 Access Code received…

Decrypting…

The events of the XX-Beta-12 pit exploration had taught the Archangel Foundation two key things; the pits worked, and Los Angeles was a confirmed no-go. All other scans, taken by drones (which suffered from the travel through the portal), determined that the other 74 pits were empty. Thus, the containment part of the operation was ready to go. The securing part of the operation was the trickier part.

The Zodiac Council was in charge of the Archangel Foundation, although they were not based in the universe of Sierra-Nevada-32, but in a distant world called Endstück, which was currently in the time period of 2009, unlike Sierra-Nevada-32’s current year of 2003. Despite this, their decisions ruled the actions of the Foundation. It was them, along with the Administrator, that made the decision to use children. The decision was apparently made at a 7 for, 6 against, with the Administrator giving the go ahead for the operation. 16 willing dna donors would be cloned 16 times with one of them in every batch having some sort of containment agent within them to contain their respective entity from the list of the 16 gods.

**DONOR LIST**

John Egbert, ARC-413-1 - Archives Manager

Rose Lalonde, ARC-413-2 - Chaos Overseer

Dave Strider, ARC-413-3 - Head of Security

Jade Harley, ARC-413-4 - Head of Chemicals Department

Aradia Megido, ARC-413-5 - Chaos Technician

Tavros Nitram, ARC-413-6 - Wrangler

Sollux Captor, ARC-413-7 - Chaos Technician

Karkat Vantas, ARC-413-8 - Security

Nepeta Leijon, ARC-413-9 - Wrangler

Kanaya Maryam, ARC-413-10 - Chaos Technician

Terezi Pyrope, ARC-413-11 - Security

Vriska Serket, ARC-413-12 - Security

Equius Zahhak, ARC-413-13 - Chaos Technician

Gamzee Makara, ARC-413-14 - Chemicals Department

Eridan Ampora, ARC-413-15 - Research and Development

Feferi Peixes, ARC-413-16 - Research and Development


	5. Act Four: The Second Foundation

LEVEL 4 ACCESS REQUIRED

Level 4 Access Code required…

Decrypting…

It was recommended that in order to corral the entities into their cloned host bodies that anomalous entities borrowed from the universe cluster of Tau-5 be used. These entities shared anomalous patterns, traits, signals, and auras. Thus, as every test in the past has shown (some worse than others, case in point Joint Experiment-X-9113K-os117-049), they will be attracted to this energy and attempt to bond with the bodies of the anomalous. However, the presence of the containment agent will draw in the entities. Tests in the past have proved this, although they usually do not last long before the host bodies spontaneously combust. The new containment agents have shown to be stable, although a hassle to deal with. The Solomon Project will use 15 of the 16 clones not selected as hosts as bait for the anomalous to go after. The more they kill, the higher the chance of a god being drawn in.

The actions taken in the Solomon Project must be amoral.

We must make the hard decisions.

For the good of all mankind.

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROTECTED BY A

**TERRAKÁNOW**

CLASS MEMETIC KILL AGENT

BY THE ORDER OF THE SIERRA-NEVADA-32 ZODIAC COUNCIL

AND THE TAU-5 OMEGA-5 COUNCIL

[MEMETIC KILL AGENT NEUTRALIZED]

[WELCOME DOCTOR JOHN HARLEY]

ANOMALOUS ITEM LIST

  * T5-ITEM-001 The Seraph
  * T5-ITEM-008 Zombie Apocalypse
  * T5-ITEM-036 Discount Wendigo
  * T5-ITEM-150 Ghosts in a jar
  * T5-ITEM-250 Blood Crabs
  * T5-ITEM-254 Vampire (s), plural this time
  * T5-ITEM-277 A whole load of giant insects
  * T5-ITEM-380 The Witch
  * T5-ITEM-389 The Fairies of Druzhba
  * T5-ITEM-472 Longlegs
  * T5-ITEM-524 The Straw Men of Potter’s Field
  * T5-ITEM-547 The King of the Violet Abyss
  * T5-ITEM-611 Death Cats (Cats who kill you)
  * T5-ITEM-642 Things of the Dark
  * T5-ITEM-758 The Great Sorcerer Jerry
  * T5-ITEM-843 Beings of Thought
  * T5-ITEM-1000 Psychological Chaos
  * T5-ITEM-2076 The Sigh
  * T5-ITEM-2470 Crazed Cultists of Occult Russia
  * T5-ITEM-2555 Birds of Darkness
  * T5-ITEM-2618 Texas Chainsaw Undead Family
  * T5-ITEM-2787 Anomalous Wolves of Thompson Church
  * T5-ITEM-2880 Jack of Lanterns
  * T5-ITEM-2912 The Blood Fae
  * T5-ITEM-3196 Stalker-Slicers
  * T5-ITEM-3581 Super Clowns™
  * T5-ITEM-3677 The Angels of Yahweh
  * T5-ITEM-3850 Wolf-Skin
  * T5-ITEM-3872 Shoggoth
  * T5-ITEM-4479 The Silent Bride
  * T5-ITEM-4661 The Last Unicorn
  * T5-ITEM-4951 An Angry Cedar Tree



_ Current models predict that the world will end on December 31, 2022, unless the Solomon Project is enacted by then. We need to get this project off the ground. _

  * Solomon Project Director [REDACTED]



Project Status 1/1/2003 - Pending

Project Status 1/5/2003 - Authorized

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, it's the SCP Foundation.


	6. Act Five: Containment

LEVEL 5 ACCESS REQUIRED

Level 5 Access Code recognized…

Decrypting…

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROTECTED BY AN

**IGNISARLÖN**

CLASS MEMETIC KILL AGENT

BY THE ORDER OF THE SIERRA-NEVADA-32 ZODIAC COUNCIL

AND THE TAU-5 OMEGA-5 COUNCIL

[ERROR]

INVALID ID

EXECUTING MEMETIC KILL AGENT

…

LIFE SIGNS DETECTED

[RECALIBRATING]

[RECALIBRATING]

[ID Recognized.]

[Welcome, Doctor John Harley.]

The following file is classified as TOP SECRET.

‘THE GREAT LIE’ STATEMENTS

Archangel Foundation “We die with the truth so you can survive the lie.”

SCP Foundation “We die in the dark so you can live in the light.”

EIPSCAF (Endstück) “We die in the war so you can live in peace.”

United Multiverse Federation “We die in the night so you can live in the bright.”

[CONTINUE?]

**[Y]** [N]

Decrypting…


	7. 1 - Ghost of the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The 1st operation of the Solomon Project; Aradia's capture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Texas Chainsaw Massacre much?  
> It has taken me weeks to write this. Motivation, where art thou?

SPRING 2020

15 year-old Aradia Megido loves the forest. She loves to get lost in nature. Not literally, of course. But she lets it all fall away as she lingers in the woods in a peaceful state of mind.

She’s currently doing this to keep her mind away from thoughts about her sister, Damara.

Damara is dead, having killed herself.

Aradia is, of course, doing her best to avoid this fact.

So, she’s out here, in the forests, sitting on a log.

“I figured I would find you out here.” Equius says when he finds her. She doesn’t turn.

“It’s where you always go.” he adds. She barely reacts.

“Why are you here, Equius?” she finally asks.

“Because I care about you and I want to help you.” he responds, his voice softer than usual.

“We are all hurt by this.” he continues. “But we’ve come together to grieve.”

“Since when were you the sentimental kind?” Aradia asks.

“Since I was born.” Equius responds. Aradia bites her lip.

“She’s gone, Equius. She’s gone and she’s not coming back.” she says. “She didn’t speak to me at all, she just… did it. Why didn’t she tell me how she was feeling?”

She’s crying now, and starts to wipe her eyes, but stops when Equius comes over and hugs her. She cries into his chest in the middle of the forest, and he holds her close. She doesn’t know how long they stay like that, but she just lets her grief spill out.

1 YEAR LATER, SPRING 2021

MAINE

Aradia is 16 now and in a pickup truck heading up into the mountains. She’s riding shotgun while Equius drives. In the backseat, Jade and Nepeta are busy chatting. Aradia’s too fascinated by the outside nature to pay attention to what anyone else is doing. Equius remains dead set on the road ahead, as he usually is. He takes things like cars and trucks very seriously, whether fixing them or driving them. The drive takes a few hours, but they arrive. It’s a giant cabin in the gloriously beautiful and heavily forested wilderness. Aradia loves it. It’s so calming. The inside is equally beautiful. The whole place feels incredibly homey.

“I seriously can’t believe that your family owns this.” Karkat says to John in stupefied disbelief.

“Yeah well, Crockercorp is a big company.” John says. “Plenty of stuff comes from it.”

“I feel like I’m going to get lost in here.” Eridan says.

“Yeah well, if you do, I’m not going to come find you.” John says.

As her friends bicker, Aradia remains silent. She joins Sollux, Gamzee, and Tavros in heading upstairs to approximately where John said the rooms were.

“This place _is_ pretty motherfucking big.” Gamzee comments, before he and Tavros head into one of the eight rooms. The room Aradia ends up picking has a nice triangular window at the end of the room and twin beds on the sides. She puts down her stuff at the foot of the bed. The view outside lets her see into the pine trees surrounding them.

“Wow.” she mutters. It’s quite a sight with the mountains in the distance. Going downstairs, she finds Nepeta and Equius going against Jade in a game of chess.

“This is foolish.” Equius keeps muttering as Nepeta carefully moves one of her rooks.

“Quiet Equius, I know what I’m doing.” Nepeta responds.

“Who’s winning?” Aradia asks as she goes over and slouches in the couch next to them. In response, Nepeta gestures to the equal amount of white and black pieces next to them.

“Now I’m technically winning.” Jade says, knocking one of Nepeta’s pawns off the board.

“I warned you about that, you know.” Equius says. “Now she has an open line to-”

“Yes, I can see Equius. All part of the plan.” Nepeta calmly says.

“I will leave you to it.” Aradia says.

Aradia spends the next few hours of the day just reading and occasionally pausing to stare out her window at the pines outside. She mainly reads to distract herself from Damara’s death. It’s been a whole year, but she can’t move on. She doesn’t understand why she can’t just let go. She wonders if it’s the whole isolation thing she does. She feels better when she’s isolated, but she wonders if that same thing is what’s tearing her apart. So, she puts the book away and goes for a walk in the woods.

Rose and Kanaya are somewhere in there too, Aradia just doesn’t know where. She just walks and walks and walks. The pines loom. She doesn’t know when, but she suddenly stumbles across another cabin. It looks older, abandoned, like it’s been here for quite some time. There’s a collection of graves out back of the cabin. The names etched into the old stone seems to have faded away due to time. It’s impossible to tell who was once buried here. This whole place feels unholy. Forlorn. Like she’s violating some kind of taboo. So, she turns and leaves.

BENEATH

“Alright, how are we doing?” Rose asks as she steps inside the Technicians’ room and closes the metal door behind her.

“We’re doing just fine. All systems ready to go.” Aradia says.

“Ready to lead the charge against your clones, boys and girls?” Rose asks, looking at the assembled workers. Dave, Jade, Aradia, Sollux, Kanaya, Equius. They nod. Dave gives a silent thumbs up. “Dave, what are you doing here?” Rose asks, bringing him off to the side.

“Being head of security. Same way Jade’s here to represent the chems people.” Dave says in an innocent voice. “My job is to be right here. The woman downstairs said so.”

Rose scowls and gives him a playful punch in the arm. Dave snickers. “Alright, let’s get started.” she says, pushing past him and standing just behind the four people sitting at the massive control panel. Her job is to mainly tell them what to do, but she can act as a fifth technician should the situation require it.

“This is Mission Control.” she says into the central microphone, addressing the general facility. “The date is March 17th, 2021. We are commencing our first capture now.”

Commencing Operation “Rust Clock”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-150 - Ghosts in a jar

SCP-2618 - Texas Chainsaw Undead Family

ABOVE

That night, everyone crowds around a fireplace out back of the cabin just out in the woods. Equius isn’t really doing anything, just staring into the fire. Aradia’s staring into his eyes and watching the fire light reflect off of them. Dave and Karkat are in the middle of another one of their loving/antagonistic arguments. Tavros and Gamzee occasionally add to the general conversations, but are mainly silent. Aradia is fairly certain that they are both stoned. Vriska and John are yammering on about urban legends or something, while Jade and Nepeta seem to be the only ones listening to them. Rose and Kanaya are busy whispering to each other while holding hands. Sollux and Terezi are busy chasing each other around the fire, while Eridan and Feferi are casually chatting. Aradia sidles her way over to Equius and leans her head on his shoulder. He turns to look at her for a moment and she smiles at him, but he goes back to staring into the fire intently.

“What’s with the stare?” she asks. He shrugs.

“I am simply pondering the future.” Equius calmly says. “And what will come after this.”

“Spring break’s gonna be over.” Aradia comments, and all he says is “Yes.”

“A few more months of high school, and then it is the end of our old lives.” Equius says. “What do you think it will be like?”

“Are you actually thinking about the future?” Aradia asks, and he shrugs again.

“I am simply pondering how our lives may go.” Equius says with a degree of uncertainty.

“You are thinking about the future.” Aradia says. “Never seen you do that before.”

He doesn’t say anything.

It’s about midnight when Aradia wakes up. Equius is in the bed across from hers, quietly snoring. She feels drawn to the window. When she looks outside, she can see figures shambling out of the woods. There’s something… off about them.

“Equius.” she whispers as she shakes him, continuing to draw her gaze back to the window. The figures number about a half dozen and are now standing in a circle making weird hand gestures. “Equius.” she whispers, louder this time. “Wake up.” he makes a little grumble sound.

“What.” he mumbles.

“There’s weird people outside our window.” she says, and he rubs his eyes.

“What time is it?” he asks.

“Midnight.” Aradia says, already knowing the time instinctively. She’s good with stuff like that.

“Why are there weird people outside our window at midnight?” Equius asks.

“I don’t know.” Aradia says, and stares out the window again. One of the six figures has a jar, and they unscrew it. A transparent shining silver form arcs out of it. “This is some occult shit.” she whispers, and Equius stares out the window with her. “We should wake the others.” Aradia whispers, and Equius gives her a look that’s a combination of _yes we should_ and _are you crazy_.

All but one of the six figures begin to walk a wide arc around the house, while the final one walks towards the cabin, shambling like a zombie out of some cliche horror film. The silver form leads the charge towards the cabin, and Aradia dares to crane her neck further upwards to look farther down to see the figure raise its arms and smack the wooden door of the cabin.

_Slam_

The sound makes both of them jolt, and the figure slams again.

_Slam_

Then, there’s a series of crashes that echo throughout the cabin. Aradia sticks her head out of her room and sees several of the others doing the same.

“What the hell?” Jade asks, rubbing her eyes.

“What was that noise?” Feferi wonders aloud.

“I think there’s some people inside.” Aradia says, and everyone gets quieter.

“‘Some people’?” John cautiously asks.

Tavros, Karkat, Dave, and Aradia are the first people to reach the balcony and peer over through the darkness to see the figure standing below just staring up at them.

“What the fuck?” Karkat whisper-yells, and Dave shushes him.

The figure just stares up at them, tipping its head to the side. Its gender is impossible to determine in the late light. John shoves past the others, pushing Dave to the side.

“Hello?” he asks, and Karkat curses at him.

The figure cracks its neck, and then its knuckles. There is a heavy silence. A silvery form flickers through the air near the figure on the first floor, who briefly turns to the form before turning back to the people on the balcony. Then, they produce a tomahawk from their belt and throw it through the air. It happens to strike Tavros dead center in the skull. Everyone stumbles back in surprise, including Tavros, who pauses for a moment and stumbles like he’s drunk before falling dead on the spot into Gamzee’s arms, splattering him with blood. Gamzee stares in shock, and Feferi straight up screams.

“Holy shit!” Karkat shouts, and everyone stumbles backwards. Gamzee just sort of stands there in shock, still slightly confused and still very stoned.

“Tavros…” he whispers, and just stands there. Karkat grabs him and hauls him back, causing both of them to stumble away as the figure shambles up the stairs slowly.

“One down, fourteen to go.” Rose whispers to herself as she stares at the screens.

Above, John and Equius barricade the door to the large storage room the group is in in an attempt to prevent the people on the outside from getting in.

“What the fuck…?” Dave finally says, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Gamzee finally realizes what just happened and starts crying silently. The strange people start hammering on the door, but fail to get it open due to the dresser in the way.

“What do we do?” Sollux asks.

“There’s some hunting shotguns downstairs in the basement.” John says.

“Shit man, that’s not much use if we can’t get there.” Eridan says.

“We could try and take the back door out of this room and around the house.” John says.

“We should go as a group.” Nepeta says.

“Sollux, can you-” Rose starts, but Sollux is already on it. He flips a switch and gives a thumbs up. “These better work, Jade.” Rose says. Jade shrugs.

“No, we should send a smaller group.” Sollux argues. “Make less noise, be quicker.”

“Yeah, he’s right.” Terezi says. “He’s got a point."

Gamzee wants to argue, but he’s feeling too shocked to do so.

They end up agreeing that John will lead Vriska, Karkat, and Terezi downstairs. Terezi and Sollux share a look of mutual love, Dave and Karkat kiss each other quickly.

It seems to be an eternity of silence as the other eleven people sit around in the room, straining to hear sounds beyond the hammering on the door. They don’t end up hearing the gunshot. Eridan and Feferi are comforting Gamzee, Rose and Kanaya are holding each other close, Dave is twiddling his thumbs with a ‘nothing-is-under-control’ look on his face. Sollux is nearby doing the same. Equius is continuously building up the barricade. Jade and Nepeta have their hands firmly clasped together. As for Aradia, she’s sitting alone.

She’s thinking about Damara again.

She hates it when she does. What she hates more is how thinking about her deceased sister has transformed into something of a coping mechanism to distract her from harsh situations such as these.

“Hello.” Equius says, sitting down next to her. “I would ask if you are alright, but I doubt that.” Aradia is silent, so he speaks again. “I have enough knowledge of your expressions to know what you are thinking about.” Aradia winces. “Your sister.”

“I can’t let go.” she says. “And the days go by so fast and I can’t stop thinking about her. It’s all just a blur. I don’t know if it matters. I can’t grieve, I don’t even think I can at this point.”

Equius puts a hand on her shoulder. “If we get out of this, you should probably get a proper psychiatrist.” she nods. He puts his hand on her shoulder and holds her close.

Terezi and Vriska stumble back in through the door moments later, Terezi practically dragging Vriska, who is pale as a sheet. Dave immediately stands up.

“Karkat?” he asks.

“He’s still down there.” Vriska says in a shocked tone.

“We… we lost John.” Terezi says. “But we got these.” She drops a pair of hunting shotguns to the ground, along with some ammo. “We got one of those bastards too. Ish.”

“Terezi, you’re bleeding.” Sollux points out as he rushes over. She puts her hand to her forehead. It comes away warm, wet, and red.

“Hmm.” she muses aloud. “I guess I am.” she winces as Sollux, Rose, and Kanaya tend to her.

“We gotta go get him.” Dave says.

“We can’t do that, Dave.” Jade says.

“I am not losing him.” Dave practically shouts back through gritted teeth.

“Hold on,” Feferi suddenly points out, raising her hand. “Has anyone noticed the silence?”

Everyone tenses up as if just noticing the fact that the hammering on the door has stopped.

“Why’d they stop?” Eridan whisper-yells.

“Maybe they left.” Nepeta says in an unsure voice.

“They would have no reason to.” Equius says. “It is tactically foolish.”

“I’m going to go save him.” Dave hisses, and grabs one of the dropped shotguns.

“You can’t do that.” Terezi insists, before wincing as one of her fingernails stabs into the open wound in her forehead. “Ow.”

“I can do whatever the hell I want, I’m going to save my boyfriend.” Dave argues.

“I’m coming too, man.” Gamzee says.

“No.” Dave says. “You’re stoned and you’re grieving.”

“I don’t give a motherfucking shit.” Gamzee responds, and stands next to Dave.

“I want to go with you.” Aradia finally says.

“No.” Equius says. “This is foolish.”

“I can do what I want, Equius.” Aradia responds. “Gotta distract myself somehow.”

_And because I feel drawn outside._

“You will not go.” Equius argues in that firm voice of his. Aradia ignores him and stands beside Dave and Gamzee. Equius scowls.

“Hey, uh, quick question, how many of you actually know how to use a hunting shotgun?” Jade asks, and everyone stops talking. Jade puts up her hand, and Nepeta does the same. Vriska also puts up her hand, hesitantly.

“Wait, Nepeta, you can use a shotgun?” Terezi asks, and Nepeta shrugs.

“Jade taught me.” she says.

“Well, you’ll need someone who knows what they’re actually doing.” Jade says.

“Absolutely not.” Nepeta says immediately after.

“Nepeta, listen.” Jade says. “Somebody who’s not in shock needs to be here to know how to use the other rifle.” Nepeta frowns. “Please.” Jade says, grabbing her shoulders and looking her in the eyes. Nepeta sighs.

“Alright.” she finally says.

Dave, Jade, Gamzee, and Aradia stalk through the dark house. Nobody says a word, being as silent as they can. They pass a body on the ground, noting how it looks rotten and decayed and is still twitching. Dave grabs the dropped machete lying next to the supposed corpse. Gamzee glances at him, but mostly keeps staring ahead. They slowly descend into the basement, and Jade flinches every time she steps on a creaky floorboard. They can hear crashing and scraping in the basement, as well as some panicked shouting. Dave tenses up, and Aradia puts a hand on his shoulder. He eases a little, but raises the machete as they arrive.

The basement lights are on, and there are discarded cardboard boxes and crates around. There’s a pool of blood in a dark corner, and Jade winces when she sees it. They already know who it is, so they don’t waste time checking. They find a man in shredded clothing wielding a sickle trying to open some door behind which there is quite a bit of shouting of various slurs. Jade raises the hunting rifle and blasts the man from the side, sending him slamming into the wall nearby and slumping to the floor. There’s a brief pause before Karkat cracks open the door and cautiously looks outside. Dave doesn’t waste time with words, just runs to him and hugs him. Karkat returns the hug and kisses him on the cheek.

“They get up after a few minutes, right?” Rose asks.

“Why, do you want them to get up more quickly?” Sollux asks. She nods.

“Yeah, go ahead. Also, let the ghost get in on the action.” Rose says.

Sollux flips some switches.

“This is going to be good.” Aradia says. “Also, why is my clone self so… not-me?”

“Different circumstances, different people.” Equius says.

“Yeah, but everyone else turned out relatively similarly.” Aradia argues. “Why the fuck am I so silent, sad, and emo?” Kanaya snorts.

“Cloning is weird, Aradia.” Rose says. “Deal with it.”

Jade gasps and raises the rifle again as the fallen corpse stands once more, strands of hair flying from its forehead. Dave pulls Karkat back just in time to dodge a swipe from its sickle, and they both sprawl. Jade finishes reloading and puts a third bullet in the corpse, which stumbles backwards, before slashing down at Dave and Karkat, who roll to the side to dodge. The zombie swings the sickle sideways and gashes Karkat’s shoulder, causing him to scream. Dave stands, screams, and slashes at the thing with the stolen machete, taking a chunk out of its side. It responds by headbutting him and slashing him across the arm. Karkat stumbles to his feet and yanks Dave back before his throat can be cut, and they head for the stairs in a sprint. When they reach the top, Jade immediately raises the rifle to fire at the corpse from earlier, now machete-less, but gets her rifle forced upwards, blowing a hole in the ceiling.

“Oh, shit!” she shouts, and the second zombie pulls the gun from her hand and smacks her to the side with it. Aradia grabs the machete out of Dave’s shaking hands and chops off the zombie’s hand holding the rifle, causing both to clatter to the ground. She kicks it back, and Gamzee picks it up before tossing it to Jade, who begins reloading it. The zombie knocks Aradia aside and punches Gamzee right in the face, causing him to stumble and fall too. Dave and Karkat stop halfway up the stairs as the other man comes up behind them, unsure of which way to go. The man at the top of the stairs kicks Jade in the head and knocks her unconscious. Then he slams Gamzee unconscious with the rifle. The second one slams Dave and Karkat’s heads together, and then the first one kicks Aradia in the face and she gets knocked out too.

“They aren’t even clearing.” Equius comments.

“Yeah, kill some more people already.” Sollux half-shouts.

“Patience.” Kanaya says. “They have a song and dance. Let them enact it.”

“Yeah, they like to go all Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” John says.

“So why haven’t they?” Aradia asks.

“Oh, you know what I mean when I say that.” John responds, scowling a little.

She isn’t sure how long she’s out, but she wakes to find herself strapped to a chair. Looking around, she can see the rest of her friends also strapped to chairs, including Tavros’ corpse with a gaping wound in its skull, and John’s, which is a bloody mess. They’re all at the end of a room containing a long table. Around it are the six figures from earlier, now much more easy to identify up close. The one with the re-stolen machete and the one with the sickle seem to be acting like rowdy brothers, leading her to draw the conclusion that that’s exactly what they are. There’s a smaller female one with a knife, as well as an older male one with a chainsaw, an older female one with a hammer, and a second older male one with an axe of sorts instead of a hand. She looks to Equius, the person next to her, who takes her hand. As the figures grunt at each other, she looks upwards and sees a silvery form hovering over the table and the hanging lamps.

They seem to make some sort of decision and the presumed brothers drag Nepeta’s chair over. She shares a futile look with Jade as the two zombies grunt at each other. Aradia’s eyes continue to linger on the ghost above them, only briefly flickering to the open jar below it. She doesn’t notice any identifiable facial features, with just a blank slate of white. It stares at her, and it feels like it's looking into her soul. Maybe it is. She feels… trapped by the gaze. Nepeta is saying something, but she barely hears it. She’s lost in the emptiness the spirit offers. The thing’s face twists, the empty features somehow contorting like a piece of crumpling paper. And then, it has her sister’s face. She breaks visual contact with the thing when she hears a _splat_. She looks down and sees that Nepeta’s skull is caved in, courtesy of mister axe-hand. Jade is watching in shock, and one of the brothers pushes Nepeta back over next to Jade, who stares for a moment before taking the dead girl’s hand.

The six zombies go back to grunting at each other and shoving. Aradia looks back up and sees that the ghost is gone. She looks back down and sees Rose dragged over. Kanaya shouts at them to take her instead, but they ignore her. They fuss about her for the next minute or two, and nobody says a word. Except maybe Kanaya, who is screaming obscenities at them. They pause, look at her, then move Rose back. Rose breathes a sigh of relief, and intertwines her hand with Kanaya’s. Then one of the brothers grabs John’s corpse and brings it over, to which the mother-looking one brings up her hammer and smacks him for bringing a corpse, causing him to put John back and bring Feferi instead. Eridan starts shouting something, but they pay him no mind. The one with the chainsaw grunts something at the others, and they step aside as he revs up his chainsaw. Eridan accidentally brings his chair down on its side, and he screams as Feferi screams as she gets cut in half. He sobs as they kick the bloody chair over to him, and he does his best to cradle her corpse with his hands being tied.

“That’s a little more like it.” Rose mutters.

“That’s a quarter down, twelve more to go.” Kanaya adds.

“They’re being a bit too shocked.” Rose adds. “Could you make them a little more rebellious?”

“You got it.” Aradia says, and flicks some switches. “There we go.”

“Good. Those gods like more action, draws ‘em in better.” Rose says.

When the brother with the sickle goes for Karkat, he responds by headbutting the zombie in the face and causing them to stumble back. He grabs the dropped sickle and cuts his straps. He snarls and cuts Dave free, then Rose and Kanaya. The one with the machete charges at him, and he cuts its hand off, while Dave catches the machete and stumbles a bit, before whacking the second zombie sideways. Karkat cuts Jade loose, while Dave frees Terezi. Terezi in turn frees Sollux, and both of them free Vriska. Dave gets Gamzee, while Karkat gets Equius, who is still staring at Nepeta’s body in a trance of sorts. When Sollux frees Aradia, she tugs on him and practically drags him along. Rose and Kanaya heave Eridan up as soon as they free him, and he gets sort of dragged along by them. The group runs through the house towards the front door. Aradia keeps glancing back and sees discount Leatherface but as a zombie charging after them with a chainsaw.

Gamzee trips, and everyone else has to keep going. Equius looks for a moment like he might go back, but turns back pretty quickly when he sees how quickly the chainsaw man is gaining, and he turns back with a horrified expression as he hears Gamzee scream. Eridan frees himself from Rose and Kanaya’s grasp, and everyone sprints for the woods, noting the sufficient slashes on the various cars’ tires. Vriska initially goes for her car, and ends up lagging behind everyone else as they flee into the trees. Aradia takes off in a specific direction, and Equius follows her, unsure of whether she’s going the safest way.

“She’s going for us. Spin her round.” Rose says.

“Yep.” Aradia casually says, and flips some switches.

“I hope you guys made enough chems.” Rose says.

“Evidently, we’ve made enough if they’re going to be used so often.” Jade says.

Aradia stops dead and pulls Equius with her around the back of a tree. The chainsaw sounds fade, and she can hear shouting in the distance. She takes Equius’ hand and they stay there for what feels like hours. Maybe it is hours, for all they know. The silence is cut by a scream at one point, and more shouting. Then, it’s back to the quiet.

“What do we do?” Equius eventually asks.

“Why are you asking me?” Aradia responds. “I don’t know what to do. And you are definitely the more emotionally stable of the two of us.”

Equius sighs when she says that. “You are certainly not incorrect in this statement.” he says.

“I think we should stay here, honestly.” Aradia says. She goes back to staring off into the distance and once again thinking about her sister.

“You are thinking about your sister once again.” he correctly points out.

“Yes.” she says, sighing. “I am. It’s all I ever do.”

“Every day you become increasingly withdrawn.” Equius says. “But you don’t need to handle this alone.”

“But this is my problem.” Aradia argues. “My burden. I’d rather not force it on others.”

“That is not what I’m saying.” Equius says. “You are obsessed with that idea that this is your problem but that is exactly what is making so prevalent in your life.”

“So what are you saying?” Aradia asks.

“I’m asking you to open up to me.” Equius says.

“I can’t.” she whispers.

“Of course you can.” Equius responds. “Simply tell me why you are incapable of letting go.”

She sighs, and sits back against the tree. “My mother, she…” Aradia says. “She wasn’t there all that often.” she pauses, considers what to say next.

“Damara and I were on our own most of the time. I kind of idolized her, or at least idolized her good side.” Aradia briefly flinches when there’s a distant bout of shouting.

“Regardless, I might have well as tethered myself to her. So when she went down into the dark, it took everything in me not to follow her.” she sniffles a little. “And a part of me wanted to hold onto her forever. Because I couldn’t stand that she was gone. So, I never let go.”

She pauses and stares into the dark night sky at the stars. “Soon, that became my coping mechanism. Things are going wrong? Just think of the good times I spent with my sister. And now, I’ve all but painted myself into a corner.” she licks her lips.

She wavers for a moment, then lets herself break down in silent tears. “What the fuck do I do now? I don’t know how to go forwards, and I just feel like going down.” she says.

Equius has no response other than to hug her close. She cries into his shoulder for what feels like half an hour to her but is probably more like ten minutes. Both of their thoughts are interrupted by a loud _SLAM_.

They look westward and see a large wall formed up of transparent blue hexagons interlocked to form some sort of barrier. It flickers with energy, and fizzles out of sight. There’s a distant group of screams and shouts. The two of them exchange looks.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Aradia says.

Rose doesn’t even need to speak for Kanaya to flip some switches and get Aradia and Equius moving towards the others. All that remains are Rose, Dave, Jade, Sollux, Kanaya, Terezi, Equius, Eridan, and of course, Aradia. Seven down, nine to go.

Aradia and Equius find Rose, Dave, and Kanaya at the edge of a ravine where the barrier presumably was, with Dave staring over the cliff in shock. Judging by his look, neither of them needs to guess what happened. They can fill in the blanks.

“He’s gone.” Dave keeps muttering.

There’s the sound of somebody shouting in the distance and something crashing through the underbrush, as well as the sound of a revving chainsaw. They turn, although Dave doesn’t. Eridan runs screaming out of the woods, chainsaw zombie following. Rose, Kanaya, Aradia, and Equius begin to make a sprint for it, but Dave just stands there. Eridan trips and gets bifurcated by the chainsaw, and man doesn’t even bother to chainsaw Dave, who just stands in shock. He simply whacks the teenager sideways off the cliff, causing him to tumble out of sight.

The other four of them keep running, anywhere at this point. They happen across a shed.

“Think this is part of the property?” Aradia asks. Nobody responds. Equius pries open the rusty lock on the door and swings it open, allowing moonlight to fill the inside of the shed. They search around. Rose already has Dave’s stolen machete as well as the stolen sickle. Equius grabs a large hammer, Aradia gets a pair of knives, while Kanaya grabs a chainsaw off the wall. She and Rose exchange a glance. There’s the sound of a shotgun blast in the distance. Everyone jumps.

“Jade.” Rose says.

There’s another rifle blast and the sound of two people arguing over each other, as well as the clashing of metal. Rose, Aradia, Kanaya, and Equius reach the cabin as the sun’s light peaks over the trees and spot the remaining three survivors; Sollux is hiding behind Jade, who is currently reloading her rifle as axe-hand zombie stalks closer towards her. He’s busy shouting in panic and she’s shouting at him to shut up and let her focus. Nearby, the smaller ‘daughter’ zombie is pinned to the cabin outer wall by a knife through her arm. Near her, Terezi is busy trying to deflect the female zombie with a hammer’s attacks using a kitchen knife. The four of them exchange looks and nods. They cautiously move forwards. Aradia throws a knife at the axe-hand zombie, and misses. She frowns.

“Doesn’t work like that in real life, mini-me.” Aradia says.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that stress doesn’t improve accuracy.” Dave says. Rose gives him a look. He shrugs. “Learned from experience.”

Axe-hand continues forwards, and knocks Jade’s rifle from her hands. Sollux yelps and jumps backwards as Jade stumbles away from him. Kanaya revs up the chainsaw and charges. The axe-hand zombie turns just in time to get a chainsaw in the face, splitting his head in half and causing him to fall to the ground. Jade goes for the rifle and aims for the zombie going after Terezi. She grits her teeth and winces.

“Shoot it, shoot it!” Rose insists.

“Fuck!” Jade shouts, and brings down her gun. “Can’t risk it.”

“Give me that.” Equius says, grabbing the rifle and firing it, missing his shot completely. He sighs and gives it back to Jade. “I am not the best shot.”

“Screw it.” Kanaya mutters, and charges at the hammer zombie, whacking her aside with the turned off chainsaw, before revving it up again and cutting her in half.

“Thanks.” says Terezi.

The sound of a revving chainsaw interrupts them, and they turn. Sollux screams as the chainsaw goes through him, but Jade is surprisingly silent for having her insides chewed up by the end of the tool, leaving both of them on the ground in a bloody mess. Kanaya gestures for the others to get behind her and snarls, raising her chainsaw in response to the chainsaw zombie’s challenge.

“This is going to be interesting. Who do you think is gonna win?” Dave asks.

“We don’t take bets on these things, Dave.” Rose says.

“What? It’s a colosseum. Gotta enjoy the show otherwise the guilt will overwhelm ya.” he says.

Rose sighs. “Myself.” Kanaya says.

“Ditto.” Rose begrudgingly says.

“Chainsaw man for sure.” Aradia says.

“I vote the same as her.” Equius says.

“I have no vote here.” Sollux says.

“I’d rather not vote either.” Jade adds.

The chainsaws clash together, saw blades grating together with a screech, creating a cacophony of sounds accompanied by hundreds of sparks. Kanaya snarls, and the zombie makes a growling sound in response. The others stare on, unsure of what to do, although Rose’s expression is fearful to put it lightly. Kanaya parries a slash that would have taken off one of her legs, then saws off the side of the zombie’s face. Not that that slows it down in the slightest, as it ignores the injury and keeps attacking. Kanaya backs up after a large swing nearly takes her head off, and she saws off one of its feet with a downward slash. It stumbles and falls and she cuts its head off, but not before it gets a gash across her right arm. She hisses while it falls to the ground and drops her chainsaw. Rose runs forwards to Kanaya and keeps muttering her name in a panic as she bleeds from the deep wound on her arm.

“Oh god… oh god oh god oh god oh god.” Rose keeps muttering. The others start to step forwards and stop when they see the new shape hovering in the darkness.

“About time 150 showed up.” Rose mutters. “All it’s done is sit on the sidelines.”

Rose and Kanaya slowly turn their heads to where the other three are looking and see a bright silvery form exiting the tree line and coming towards them. It has no face or discernible form, continuing to shift and twist, writhing through different body shapes and a misty vapour. A mouth of sort opens on its blank face, a gateway into darkness. It lets loose a howl-like sound and spins towards Rose and Kanaya. It passes through them, and they look down to see their bodies covered in thousands of cuts as if made by hundreds of razor blades. They share one last look, then slump over dead.

Equius instinctively wraps his arms around Aradia as if that will protect her from the incorporeal whirling dervish barreling towards them that covers Terezi’s arm in cuts just by brushing past her. It passes by them and Aradia feels his blood leak out across her clothes and skin. It swoops into the sky with a low howl. Her eyes fill with tears.

“It’s alright.” he insists, although his mouth is filled with blood. “I will be fine.”

“No, no, no, no, no…” Aradia mutters through tears. “No, Equius, no…”

“It is alright, Aradia. I will be here for you.” Equius says. He points to her heart. “I…”

He falls to his knees and dies just like that. She hugs him close.

“Equius… Equius… Equius…” she keeps muttering.

Nearby, the ghost swoops around again and finishes off Terezi, who silently accepts her fate. Aradia is all that’s left, cradling Equius Zahhak’s corpse as the sun rises.

She feels something tugging in the back of her head. She looks up and is enveloped in a rust-coloured light, and then Aradia Megido is gone. In her place is the Ghost, the long since dead god of XX-Beta-12 reborn once more. She smiles.

“Go.” Rose commands, and teams are already out in the forest.

Ghost’s smile fades as she is shackled to her mortal body when one of the many soldiers emerging from the trees puts down a Scranton Reality Anchor and smiles at Ghost.

“Sorry Rusty.” Nepeta says. “But you’re coming with us.”

Ghost snarls and tries to conjure up magic, only to get trapped in a net of some kind launched from a gun that shuts off her powers, probably due to the small devices attached amongst the netting. A soldier comes up behind her and smacks Aradia unconscious.

When she wakes a few hours later, she’s in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies inside a room with an equal amount of enchantments and protective anomalies.

One down, fifteen to go.

The six instances of SCP-2618 repair themselves within a manner of hours and are re-contained within the facility. The single instance of SCP-150 is pulled back into its jar with a ritual conducted by some overeager occult studies scientists. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“This is all rather gorey.” Aradia wonders aloud as she watches the cleanup operation take place, Equius standing nearby her. “Not that I have problems with that.”

“Just wait until you see the blood crabs.” Equius says.

“Blood crabs?” she asks.

“Yes, it is the one shortly after mine.” he says.

“That will be interesting.” Aradia says, and smiles.

They go silent once again as they watch the cleaning crews dispose of some of the bodies.

**Significant Entity:** The Rust Clock

 **Entity Threat Level:** 1 / Dark / Notice

 **Entity Capture:** Successful

 **Avoided Incidents:** Universal Reset, Our Stories Set in Stone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One down, fifteen to go.  
> That one is going to be one of the simpler ones. Everything else may get crazier, but also a hell of a lot more fun for me to write.


	8. 2 - Dreams Do Come True

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tavros' operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's shorter and probably one of the more boring chapters.

SPRING 2020

Gamzee rocks Tavros back and forth in his arms. “I got you, my man.” he whispers. “I got you.”

Tavros is currently in a state of shock and sadness. His brother Rufioh was reported dead after a fall from some cliffs while rock climbing. His harness must have slipped, and the rest is history. Gamzee runs his hands through his boyfriend’s hair.

“I can’t believe this is happening.” Tavros whispers. “I can’t believe that he’s gone. I want him back.” he tries and fails to blink away his tears. Gamzee clutches him tighter.

“We’ll figure this out, babe.” Gamzee says. “We can get through this. Together.”

“You… you really think so?” Tavros asks.

“Yeah, man.” Gamzee says. “You’ll get through this.”

1 YEAR LATER, SPRING 2021

MAINE

Tavros stares out the window of John’s car at the mountains and the pines. They’re beautiful, he thinks. John is driving with Vriska sitting next to him, whilst Tavros and Gamzee sit in the back. Tavros is currently alone in his own headspace. He likes to imagine that he’s in another place when he’s alone. It’s not uncommon that he’ll suddenly find himself mimicking a scene from a film he watched or a book he read by acting out movements or muttering the lines or making sounds under his breath. Of course, he’s incredibly insecure about such things. The only person he’s fairly certain who knows is Gamzee, who is generally very closed about talking such personal things. That’s one of the many reasons that they get on so well. They keep each other’s secrets. The car rolls up to the big cabin in the middle of the woods.

“This place is pretty.” Tavros says.

“C’mon bro.” Gamzee says, making his way into the house shortly after John and Vriska. The inside is very spatial and is as beautiful as the outside. The two of them head up the stairs as everyone gossips about the place. The room that they pick has a window at the end of it overlooking the pines. There are lavender flowers in a pot on the sill of the window. Gamzee flops down on the first of the two beds, and Tavros sits on the one across from him.

“This is a nice cabin.” Tavros says aloud.

“You motherfuckin’ bet.” Gamzee responds. Tavros sees that he’s already gotten to smoking a joint. Tavros stares out the window at the crisp blue sky.

While Gamzee gets high in their room, Tavros decides to draw some fairies in one of the common rooms. Vriska always bullies him for doing that and ‘being a baby’, but he ignores her to the best of his ability. Not that ignoring her in recent years doesn’t change the fact that his self esteem is shit because of her. But his drawing skills are great after years of progress, and he could probably make a comic for himself or something like that. In fact, he probably should, but he favours this. He admires his finished work. It’s beautiful. He sighs. Sometimes he wishes he could go off to some place like Neverland and go on grand adventures. Unfortunately, society exists, along with all of its rules.

BENEATH

“Alright, here we go again.” Rose says as she walks into the Technicians’ room.

“Welcome back, chief.” Dave says.

“Oh, you’re still here.” Rose mutters.

As Dave snickers, Rose speaks into the microphone, projecting her voice throughout the facility. “This is Mission Control. The date is April 17, 2021. We are commencing our second capture now. Let’s send em in.”

Commencing Operation “Bronze Wind”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-389 - The Fairies of Druzhba

SCP-2912 - Blood Fae

ABOVE

Gamzee hands Tavros a joint as they sit at the edge of a campfire along with the other 14 teens there. Aradia and Equius are in some sort of debate with Sollux, Eridan, and Feferi. Terezi and Vriska are talking, with John sandwiched between them. Rose and Kanaya are silent. Dave and Karkat seem to be discussing romance with Jade and Nepeta. Tavros takes the joint and breathes in the feel, letting his head fill with the euphoria it provides him. It feels just as good as last time he got high, which was about a month ago.

“Thanks.” he says to Gamzee, who smiles at him.

“No problem Tavbrother.” Gamzee says. “Always leave one out for you.”

“Gamzee…?” Tavros asks, hesitantly.

“What is it?” Gamzee asks.

“Do you ever think about being young forever?” Tavros asks.

“Oh yeah, man.” Gamzee says. “But I just need this.” he gestures with the joint.

Tavros sighs. Maybe Gamzee doesn’t get what he means. Tavros wants to stay young forever. Gamzee wants to grow up, but he still likes getting high. Getting high and being young forever are different things emotionally.

Tavros opens his eyes at about midnight and finds the window to his room open.

 _This way_ a voice in his head whispers, and he watches a small glowing pink shape dart out said window and vanish into the night. He looks over to the other bed. Gamzee is still asleep. Almost unconsciously, he stands, walks downstairs, puts on his shoes, steps outside. The air is cold, but he sees the pink shape floating in the air. He squints; the shape is a fairy. It also seems to resemble the ones that he was drawing earlier.

 _Follow me_ the fairy says. He walks after it. As he follows it, he gets a better look at its size; it’s about the size of a small dog. It leads him to a clearing. He pauses at the edge of it.

“Why, uh, am I here exactly?” Tavros asks hesitantly.

 _Don’t you want to go on an adventure?_ It asks him.

“Well, uh, I don’t…” Tavros says, unsure of himself.

“What the fuck are they doing, exactly?” Sollux wonders.

“Oh, yeah. They do that.” John says, and everyone looks over to see that he’s hiding in the corner. He waves. “Hi. Yeah, they appeal to people’s desires. Ish.”

Tavros grabs the sides of his head. _What is going on in my head_ he thinks. “You’re trying to manipulate me, uh, aren’t you?” he says with as much confidence as he can muster.

 _Now now, Tavros, work with me here_ the fairy says in a slightly agitated voice.

“I, uh, don’t think I want to.” Tavros says, backing away.

 _Tavros, come back here_ the entity says firmly.

“I… no!” Tavros shouts, and turns and runs, feeling panic engulf his mind.

He hears a screaming as he runs back to the cabin, but he can’t tell where it’s coming from, it seems to come from everywhere around him. He skids to a stop when he reaches the building, seeing one of his friends being lifted out of it and into the air by two more fairy-esque creatures who are shining a deep red colour. He realizes it’s Feferi when the red glow catches her face, and he can see Eridan standing on a balcony, screaming. Then, she yells something and gets ripped in half, spraying the balcony with blood.

“So much for fairies of friendship.” Aradia murmurs.

“I thought they were the fairies of druzhba.” Kanaya says.

“Oh, uh, it means friendship in russian.” John says.

“Ah. I see.” Kanaya says. Rose puts her hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“Don’t sweat it honey.” Rose whispers.

Tavros stands in shock as the two halves of his friend’s body get dropped to the ground in a bloody mess. Eridan goes abruptly silent, and the others pull him inside as the two fairies dive for him. Tavros turns when he sees the red form behind him.

 _It doesn’t have to be this way, Tavros_ the first fairy says. _Just turn back and avoid all this._

Tavros wants to shout ‘fuck you’ but he doesn’t have the confidence for it. His thoughts are cut off by the sound of a gunshot.

“Tavros, come on!” Jade shouts as she cocks the weapon from the entrance. He wavers for a moment before sprinting towards the cabin, the door closing right behind them.

“Where did you, uh, get that gun…?” Tavros asks Jade as they herd into the living room where the other thirteen people are.

“Cellar.” Jade says. Nepeta runs over and hugs her, and Tavros surveys the room. Eridan is covered in blood and shaking and making little gasps. Gamzee still looks kind of stoned, but he wastes no time in rushing over to Tavros to hug him close.

“I got you Tavbrother.” Gamzee whispers.

“Gamzee… what’s going on?” Tavros asks.

“I dunno, man.” Gamzee says.

“We need a plan.” John says. “We gotta get out of here.”

“Hold on;” Sollux asks, “Where’s Terezi?”

Everyone counts heads, and notes the lack of presence of Terezi. Sollux is the first one out of the room in search. He stops dead in the hall and gawks at something just around the corner. Tavros peeks around after him and stops dead. There’s a thing resembling a fairy about the size of an adult with dark black wings and a gaping maw chalked to the brim with sharp teeth that makes up about 75% of its face. It has no nose or eyes. It’s just standing in the hallway, busy ripping open Terezi’s head, dripping blood everywhere. It tears out a chunk of her skull and begins tearing at her brain matter. Jade rounds the corner and stares in shock as it drops her corpse to the ground, allowing a greater view of the thing’s body. It’s wearing a white pantsuit which is stained with blood. Jade fires and the shot blasts into its shoulder. It turns to the three teens and steps over Terezi’s corpse, its bare feet coating in blood. Sollux moves backwards, bumping into Tavros, and the three of them hear glass smash.

Kanaya gets one last scream out before one of the fairies twists her head off, causing blood to spray all over her girlfriend, who stumbles back in shock. Jade panics and shoots at one of them, missing a shot. One of them throws a chain which wraps around John’s throat and yanks him into the air, causing him to swing about on nothing and gasp for breath as he does. Tavros and the others dart for the stairs. Dave and Karkat grab Rose’s shoulders and she stumbles up the stairs after everyone else. Jade fires a shot which blows out the ceiling lamp as a burning red fairy darts out of the way, laughing like a hyena. Two of them take hold of John’s legs and begin to pull. He screams and Vriska breaks free of the others and just starts throwing things on the table at them in a blind panic. Then he gets ripped in half, and the creature that has a mouth for a face flies at her with surprising speed and tackles her to the ground, biting into her skull. Jade fires one last shot at the red fairies and just barely misses. Equius slams the door to the room everyone’s in closed and starts blocking the entryway with furniture with Dave.

“Five in a row!” crows Aradia. “Sweet.”

“Yes, they are significantly more vicious than the zombie texas chainsaw massacre family.” Kanaya says. “The zombies take their time.”

“And these are straight to the point, I see.” Equius says.

“Aradia, are you enjoying this?” Sollux asks. “You’ve got this look.”

“Of course I am.” Aradia says with a little bit too much enthusiasm. “Gotta love a little bloodshed every now and then.”

“Don’t get too attached.” Rose says.

“What? To the people or the bloodshed?” Aradia asks.

“Both.” Rose calmly says.

The other nine people back up as Jade and Nepeta raise their rifles to the doorway, waiting for something to break through the barricade, but nothing comes.

“Why aren’t they coming?” Nepeta whispers to Jade.

“Don’t jinx it, don’t jinx it, don’t jinx it.” Jade mutters.

They stand there, guns aimed at the stack of furniture for what feels like an eternity. Tavros takes Gamzee’s hand almost unconsciously. Then they hear the scratching. And the low moaning sound that grates through their skulls. And then it stops. And then they hear a voice.

“Rose.” it whispers, barely audible. Rose gulps and Dave steps in front of her.

“Roooooooose.” it says in a voice similar to Kanaya’s. Rose makes a small choked noise.

“It’s cold in here Rose.” the Kanaya-voice whispers. “I’m so cold.”

“What the fuck?” Dave whispers.

“Cold. So cold.” the voice says, louder this time. They can hear faint demonic laughter in the distance, breaking to the uneasy silence. “I’m cold.”

“What do we do?” Jade whispers to Nepeta, who shrugs. Gamzee hugs Tavros tighter.

The thing on the other side of the door makes a raspy noise that grows in pitch until it’s like a scream of sorts, echoing through everyone’s bones. Everyone covers their ears, and the sound drowns out the sound of a door being ripped from its hinges. It also drowns out Jade shouting “Oh for fuck’s sake!” as the three red fairy things fly in through the doorway. Nepeta fires and blows one out of the air, but as everyone retreats backwards, Aradia stands in shock and gets ripped in half. The ten survivors move back into the next room.

“Wow, they’re tearing through them.” Aradia says.

“Yes.” Kanaya mutters.

“Yeah, at the Foundation, both of those anomalies had a kill count higher than any other SCP held onsite.” John explains from the corner.

“This is rather boring to watch, to be honest.” Sollux says, slouching back in his chair.

“I do believe that the next one will be much more interesting.” Kanaya says.

The group of ten splits in half at that point. Eridan mutters something and runs off, heading downstairs towards the backdoor. Equius goes after him, although hesitantly. Sollux follows, and Dave and Karkat run after him. Jade and Nepeta remain, guns up, Rose behind them along with Gamzee and Tavros. Tavros can hear shouting from the others, then screaming. The sound of a door opening, and then the sounds grow more distant. The door in front of them breaks off its hinges and both Jade and Nepeta fire in sync. Both the shots miss their marks, and Tavros instinctively recoils when two of the fairy things shoot forwards once more. One of them rips off Nepeta’s arm and the other one punches a hole in Jade’s chest. Jade gasps and slumps to the ground. Nepeta crawls over to her and takes her hand, whispering something that Tavros can’t hear as he and Gamzee backpedal. Then her neck gets snapped and she goes still too. Jade stops breathing a moment after. Rose huddles in the corner in shock. One of the things goes for Tavros and Gamzee shoves him backwards, getting a hole through the chest for his troubles while Tavros stumbles away and trips down the stairs.

“I warned you about stairs bro.” Dave mutters, barely audibly. “I told you dog.”

Rose seems to hear him and turns on her heel. “Dave, shut up.” she says.

“What?” he says, holding up his hands with an innocent look on his face. “I swear I didn’t say anything, Rose.” he pouts. “You believe me, don’t you.”

Rose sighs and facepalms.

Tavros comes to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and gasps for breath as he stumbles to his feet, and is then shocked out of his senses when he comes to the realization that Gamzee is most likely dead, having gotten literally punched through the chest. Rose is probably gone too, judging by the scream he thought he heard going down the stairs. He twitches. Something tugs at the back of his head. Then Tavros Nitram is gone as he is enveloped in a bronze-coloured light. In his place is Fae, the long since dead god of XX-Beta-12 reborn once more.

“Go get him.” Rose says over the comms. “Let them clean up the mess first though. Still got Vantas and Ampora.”

Fae strides out of the house where he sees the bloody bodies of Equius Zahhak and Sollux Captor. A distance away, Dave Strider’s corpse is lying dead on the ground. Next to it, SCP-2912, the Blood Fae is slowly and calmly walking after Karkat Vantas, who is on the ground and crawling away with bloody legs, saying things like “Please don’t kill me…” through a fit of sobs.

“It won’t hurt if you don’t say a word.” says the 2912 in a singsong voice, although Fae cannot see its mouth moving. He turns away as Karkat screams as 2912 kills him. Fae instead focuses on Eridan Ampora, lying in the mud and covered in blood. Fae simply crushes his skull using his bare hands, and then feels the thrum of a Scranton Reality Anchor.

“Hello Tavros.” he says when he sees this body’s adult self. “I’ll go willingly.” He blinks and finds himself in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies inside a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Two down, fourteen to go.

SCP-2912 is corralled back into containment via an occult ritual. The injuries the instances of SCP-389 suffer are naturally healed and they are contained via the presence of several D-Class. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“That was chaotic.” Tavros says as he and Gamzee watch the cleanup operation. “But quick.”

“Speaking of quick…” Gamzee asks. “Do you want to…”

Tavros punches him in the arm. “Later, you bastard.” they both chuckle.

They stare in silence as the operation continues.

**Significant Entity:** The Bronze Wind

 **Entity Threat Level:** 1 / Dark / Notice

 **Entity Capture:** Successful

 **Avoided Incidents:** The Puppets, Our Broken Children

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two down, fourteen to go.  
> It will get weirder soon.


	9. 3 - Life After Death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feferi's operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ZOMBIES!  
> There's a whole bunch of zombie film names thrown about.

SUMMER 2020

Feferi floats in her pool on her back, staring up at the sky. Her thoughts are wandering, but they always come back to her sister Meenah. Namely the fact that she died in a car crash yesterday. Eridan is floating next to her, and he’s yet to say a word for once. He seems to be willing to shut up and let her process her grief.

“What do you think I should do?” Feferi finally asks.

“I dunno, I’m not very good with grief.” Eridan says.

“Good point, I never got that impression.” Feferi says, and he scoffs.

“I guess… take some time or something?” Eridan says. “Just let it all out?”

Four hours later, when the sun is setting, the two of them hike up to the hill and stare out at the golden sundown. Feferi screams at the sky for a moment, and then they leave.

1 YEAR LATER, SUMMER 2021

MAINE

Rose drives with Kanaya riding shotgun while Eridan and Feferi sit in the backseat, driving up into the mountains. Their destination is a rather large cabin out in the heavily forested woods. It unfortunately has no lake or pool of any kind, which is a shame, as Feferi would prefer it to. The inside is a homey place, and rather expensive looking to be honest. She isn’t entirely sure why it needs to be so expensive looking, but she’s not arguing against it. It’s beautiful in its own way. Eridan and Feferi head upstairs to their room, which has an ovular window and two beds. Feferi can see mountains in the distance beyond the trees.

“Shame there’s no lake here.” Feferi says.

“Because you feel at home wherever there’s water.” Eridan says, his voice wavering on the w’s.

“You betcha.” Feferi says, smiling at him.

The day passes by in a bit of a blur. Feferi and Eridan go into the forest and wander while talking. Talking is one of their strengths after all. They never seem to run out of things to talk about. That is half the reason that they even became friends in the first place, and then from there, romantic partners. They’re discussing the biology of aquatic life whilst walking down some old forgotten trail in the woods. The wind whistles through the trees, and Feferi freezes. She slowly turns and notices the old cabin sitting amongst the pines. There are old graves around it. The place feels very forlorn and both of them get the feeling that they shouldn’t be here.

“Fef.” Eridan finally says. “We should go back.”

“Yeah.” she whispers. “That sounds like a good idea.”

BENEATH

“Take three.” Rose says as she enters.

“This one is going to be interesting.” Dave says.

“Why? Because there are zombies?” Aradia asks.

“Fuck yes. Zombies are the shit.” Dave says.

“What, like in  _ Train to Busan _ ?” Sollux asks. “Or  _ World War Z _ ?”

“No, not like in  _ Train to Busan _ .” John says. “They’re, uh, not that fast.”

“Also,  _ World War Z _ ? The book is better.” Jade says.

“That is irrelevant.” Equius says. “How deadly are they?”

“Not  _ 28 Days Later _ deadly, I can tell you that.” Kanaya says. “I have read the file.”

“Let’s say  _ Dawn of the Dead _ . The original, not the remake. Those ones are slow, right?” John says, his tone revealing that he’s questioning his own statement.

“Let’s say  _ Shaun of the Dead _ slow, because there are two Dawns and only one Shaun.” Dave says, shrugging as he does. “Besides, Edgar Wright is the shit.”

“They’re slow, we get the picture.” Rose says in a voice that indicates that she was done with Dave’s shit something like four years ago at least. Dave puts on an innocent expression.

“This is gonna be fun.” Aradia says, clapping her hands together.

“Can we get a move on.” Sollux says deadpan.

“Yes, we should probably get going.” Kanaya reaffirms.

“Alright.” Rose says, moving over to the mic. “The date is June 25th, 2021. Commencing our third capture.”

“What about  _ Zombieland _ ?” Dave asks.

“Quiet.” Rose says.

Commencing Operation “Fuchsia Sea”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-008 - Zombie Apocalypse

SCP-380 - The Witch

ABOVE

Feferi opens her eyes. It’s about three in the morning, if she’s right about that moonlit clock on the wall. Eridan is in the bed across from hers, soundly asleep. It’s dead silent save for the sound of his breathing and the ticking of the clock. She gets up and leaves the room. She isn’t entirely sure why, but soon she’s pouring a glass of water for herself and having a drink in the dining room at three in the morning, the ceiling lamp her only light. Her thoughts are wandering. Back to Meenah. This occasionally happens, and usually it isn’t a problem. She’s moved on, but it still hurts to think about. She drums her fingers on the table and freezes. There’s something moving in the woods. Several somethings. She stands up and squints. There are shambling people. Then she realizes; their clothes are torn. Most of them are covered in blood in some way shape or form. A few of them are missing limbs. She gasps a little and stumbles backwards.  _ Oh, shit _ is her first thought as images of old zombie films stream through her head. They begin to bang on the windows, and she breaks from her stupor to turn and run up the stairs. She flinches when she sees the open window in the living room.

She charges back upstairs and shouts for everyone to wake up.

“What the fuck are you waking us all up for?” Karkat growls.

“Yeah, it’s like three in the fucking morning.” Vriska follows up.

“There’s something out there!” Feferi whisper-yells.

“What do you mean, something?” John asks as someone flicks the lights on.

Feferi isn’t entirely sure how to answer that so she just says “I don’t know how to explain it!”

“What did you see?” Eridan asks her as Equius cautiously begins to creep down the stairs.

“I don’t-I don’t-” she says.

“Calm down Fef, calm down.” Eridan says, putting his hands on her shoulders.

“What’s down there?” Rose asks in a firm voice.

“I saw-” Feferi starts, and is cut off by a scream.

Everyone turns to see Equius grappling with some figure in the downstairs darkness, who drops him to the ground, before turning to the stairs and advancing up them, revealing themselves in the light. It’s a middle aged man in a suit, but the suit is ripped, torn, and bloody. His mouth is a bloody mess, and there’s a bloody stump where one arm should be.

“Oh fuck, he’s got an arm off!” Sollux shouts in a panic.

“What the fuck!” Karkat shouts in a panic.

“Kill it!” Vriska shouts in a panic and runs into Dave and Karkat’s room, grabs some things off the shelf, and starts throwing them, thus inciting everyone else to do so. Eridan’s the only one who gets the idea to run into Sollux’s room, grab two of the darts from his dartboard, charge the undead entity, and ram them through its skull. It drops dead to the floor and everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Except for Aradia, who charges downstairs towards Equius.

Feferi, John, and Jade all follow Aradia downstairs. “Oh, fuck.” John whispers.

There are at least four more zombies who appear to have crawled in through the open window. Behind the three of them, Aradia is trying to help Equius to his feet.

“Why the fuck was the window open?” Jade half-yells.

“Shotguns!” John shouts.

“What!?” Jade asks.

“There’s hunting rifles in the basement!” John says.

“On it!” Jade says, and turns on her heel sprinting past Equius towards the basement door. John grabs a lamp off a side table, struggles to get the shade off, succeeds in doing so, and then whacks the closest zombie with the metal base. Feferi runs over and grabs the glass on the table and throws it. She misses, and it smashes on the wall.

“Goddammit.” she mutters.

“Oh, shit!” Nepeta calls from upstairs, followed by panicked shouting. There’s a crashing noise.

“The window, the window!” Kanaya shouts.

“Fuck me, they can climb!” Karkat yells.

“Vriska!” Terezi shouts. Vriska screams. John turns.

“Vriska!” he calls. “Vriska!” he charges upstairs, seemingly forgetting the others.

_ Bang _   
Feferi jumps as Jade fires a shot from one of two rifles, the second of which is slung across her back. The shot blasts through a zombie’s shoulder.

“Come on!” Jade shouts to Feferi as she moves towards the stairs. Feferi breaks from her stupor to rush up the stairs. “Aradia, come on!” Jade shouts. The other girl barely seems to notice as she’s still trying to move Equius back while he struggles. “Fuck!” Jade finally shouts, and turns and sprints up the stairs after Feferi, abandoning the two others to their fates.

Gamzee and Karkat have already pushed a dresser into the stairway that the others need to climb over and immediately start stacking up objects. John is sitting in his and Vriska’s room, staring at the broken window and the blood trailing down it with a horrified look on his face. Sollux is busy smacking an arm sticking through the glass with what looks like a hammer.

“Fuck, this is bad!” Dave is shouting in a panicked voice. Karkat stops building a barricade to comfort him. “We’re screwed!”

“How many of those have you got?” Feferi asks Jade as she goes over to Eridan and hugs him.

“Well, we’ve got nearly sixty shells.” Jade says. “Don’t know how many of those things there are. The zombies, I mean.”

“I cannot get any cell reception.” Kanaya says.

“Me neither.” Terezi says.

“Fuck!” John shouts from his room which he has yet to leave, and everyone goes silent. “It’s the goddamned zombie apocalypse.”

“Oh, fuck.” Tavros says. “This is it.”

“Oh god.” Eridan mutters.

“Right!” Feferi says, taking a deep breath. “We need to figure out a way out.”

“What does it matter, we’re screwed!” Dave shouts. “We’re fucked!”

“Dave!” Rose shouts. “Quiet!” Dave sniffles and Karkat takes his hands.

“Everybody, calm down.” Feferi says. “Jade, you said we’ve got 59 bullets?”

“Shells.” Jade corrects. “And yes, we’ve got 59 of them, as well as two rifles. Near 30 for each.”

“Do any of us even know how to use a gun?” Eridan asks.

“Jade and I do.” Nepeta says. “She taught me how.”

“Ok, so that’s it.” Feferi says. “Is there any more defendable place here?” she asks.

“The rec room.” John says as he lurches into the hall. “Has an entrance to the cellar and no windows, plus plenty of stuff to barricade with.”

“Then we should get moving.” Rose says.

“Lead the way, John.” Feferi says.

“Right.” John says. He takes a deep breath. “Yeah.”

John starts walking forwards towards the door at the end of the hall. The others follow him. They have to descend a stairwell back onto the first floor. They enter a narrow hallway.

“It’s just down here.” John says. There’s blood on the wooden tiles.

“Jesus.” Terezi mutters.

“Whose do you think that is?” Rose asks.

“Hey, can we not talk about that?” Sollux asks.

“Why not, Sol, too hurt about your second girlfriend?” Eridan asks.

“Eridan!” Feferi scolds.

Sollux wheels around and snarls. “Shut the fuck up.” he says. “You shut the fuck up!”

“Or what?” Eridan challenges.

Sollux shoves past the others and over to the other boy. “I have had it with you.” he snarls.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Feferi says, putting herself between the two of them. “Could you two just stop fighting for ten goddamn minutes!? For god’s sake, we’re friends, stop it!”

“He’s not my friend, he’s a fucking bastard!” Sollux shouts.

“Guys, DOWN!” Jade shouts in a panic, and everyone turns to see her cocking her rifle.

“Oh, fuck!” Eridan shouts, and jumps back as zombie Equius bites at him. Feferi stumbles back, and Sollux stands in shock for too long and gets a chunk ripped out of his shoulder with Equius’ newly sharpened teeth. He’s screaming, Terezi is screaming, and then Jade fires the gun with a resounding  _ bang _ that echoes through the building. Equius stumbles backwards, and then falls to the ground with a hole in his forehead. He reveals a good dozen more zombies behind him as they hear a crashing sound like glass breaking farther behind them.

“Oh, fuck.” Karkat says as Terezi rushes to Sollux.

“We gotta keep moving!” John says. “Come on!”

“Hold on, we gotta get Sollux!” Terezi shouts back. “Karkat, help me lift him!”

“Shit, I-” Eridan says, paling. Karkat runs over and helps Sollux up. Nepeta fires a shot perfectly over both their shoulders and rips a zombie’s skull open.

“Come on!” John shouts, and starts to sprint forwards.

“John, would you slow down!?” Dave shouts in a panic and charges after him.

“Oh for-Dave, wait!” Karkat calls.

“Fuck KK, could you be careful, you’re hurting my shoulder!” Sollux says.

Nepeta fires another bullet, and Jade follows with one of her own. Two more zombies go down. Eridan is still standing there in slight shock when Feferi grabs his arm and drags him along. Jade fires another shot and blows out an undead shoulder.

“Fuck!” Jade curses. “Missed!”

“C’mon Jade!” Nepeta says, grabbing her shoulder and gesturing for her to follow.

The two of them sprint after the others.

John and Karkat are busy barricading the door while Feferi, Terezi, and Eridan tend to Sollux, who is paling quickly and barely moving. He keeps groaning in pain.

“I don’t know what-I don’t-” Eridan keeps saying in a panic of sorts. “I’m sorry.”

“Calm down, Eridan.” Feferi says. “Keep it together.”

“Fuck, I don’t know what came over me, Fef.” he says. “It’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault.” Feferi says.

“No, but I’m always jabbing at him, and if I hadn’t, he wouldn’t have come over, and then-” Eridan says, putting his hand on his mouth.

“Hey.” Feferi says, and puts her hands on his shoulders and leans her head against his. “We all make mistakes.”

“How often do you make mistakes that hurt others?” Eridan asks.

“Well, I…” Feferi says. “I…”

“Exactly.” Eridan says.

Eridan pulls away from her and goes over to stand in the corner of the room.

“Still can’t get any signal.” Kanaya mutters.

“We’ve got to get to the cars.” Jade says.

“But how are we gonna do that?” Dave asks. “They’re probably all around us.”

“They’re pounding on one of the doors, but not the second.” John says.

“You’re right.” Jade says, turning to the door at the end of the hall. “Any quick ways out?”

“Yeah, we shouldn’t be far from the back door.” John says.

“Hold on, what’s even our plan?” Nepeta asks. “Who are we sending?”

“I’ll go.” Karkat offers.

“I’ll go with him.” Jade says.

“Jade, you can’t go.” Nepeta insists.

“Sorry, need someone who knows how to use a gun.” Jade responds.

“Here, I can lead you there.” John offers. Jade nods, and gestures for him to lead the way.

“I’ll be back soon, Dave, I promise.” Karkat says, and briefly kisses his boyfriend before following John and Jade out.

What follows is a long awkward, silent, and cramped period of time. Or at least, it feels cramped for Feferi. The room is small, and with ten teens packed into it, it feels even smaller. The room feels cramped. Tiny. Feferi isn’t prone to claustrophobia, but when she does experience it, it hits hard. It’s probably one of the reasons why she likes swimming so much. There’s a freedom to it. This room feels like a cage. And it’s all unusually silent. Despite the zombies banging on the first of the three doors, there’s a quietness to it.

Then, of course, they all hear the crash.

Nepeta is the first one up, and heads for the door that John, Jade, and Karkat went for. The others tail her, and they freeze in her tracks when she sees the car that’s busted through the wall and the zombies crowding around it. John is inside, evidently panicked, but no one else seems to be inside. Nepeta fires out of reflex, and blows open a zombie skull. The undead turn.

“Shit.” Nepeta mutters.

“We gotta get John!” Rose shouts.

“What, you want us to go in there, fuck that!” Eridan shouts.

“John!” Dave shouts in a panic. Nepeta fires again.

Dave grabs a metal lamp, knocks off the shade, and starts hitting zombies as he heads for John’s side door. Another gunshot rings out, and another undead falls.

Feferi jumps as she hears Terezi scream, and turns to see Sollux taking a chunk out of her neck. “Nepeta!” she calls in a panic. “Help!”

Nepeta turns, hisses, mutters something, and then fires. It blasts through Terezi’s skull instead of Sollux’s, only putting a hole in his chest. His undead corpse shambles onwards regardless, and Feferi pushes him back by his shoulders to prevent him from straight up eating her right there. Nepeta wheels back around, and blows out another zombie’s skull. Dave starts screaming as the undead tear into him, and then Rose is screaming too, screaming his name. Eridan slams zombie Sollux on the back of a head with a stool, and Sollux responds by turning around and accidentally shoving Eridan backwards towards the zombie horde.

“Oh, shit!” he calls in a panic.

“Eridan!” she yells.

John chooses this moment to drive backwards out of the house and leave the gaping hole in the wall open.

“Opening! Go, go!” Nepeta calls and knocks the closest zombie aside as she heads for the exit. Feferi knocks zombie Sollux aside with the dropped stool, and heads for the way out with Eridan in tow. Gamzee knocks a zombie out of his way, clearing the path for him and Tavros. Rose and Kanaya are next out, although the latter brushes against a group of zombies as their numbers close. The window of John’s car shatters, and they begin to pull him out of the car. He curses, and vanishes into the horde. Nepeta fires another shot to free Tavros from an undead that grabs his arm, and then yells in a panic as another one grabs her arm and tows her into the group of zombies. She tosses her rifle to Rose, who sort of catches it and runs. She’s still struggling, but stops when she sees a zombie version of Jade, whereupon the fight goes out of her, and she goes slack as her now-zombified-girlfriend takes a chunk out of her forehead. Eridan gets grabbed and dragged into the horde.

“Eridan!” Feferi shouts. He shouts something back in a panic, and vanishes into the sea of bodies. She grabs the largest branch on the ground, as long and thick as her arm, and runs after him, screaming his name. The other four run onwards.

“Oh, wow. Didn’t expect that.” Dave says.

“What part?” Sollux asks. “Isn’t there a trope here?”

“Yeah, all the zombies break in at the third act.” Aradia says.

“No, I didn’t expect Feferi to charge in.” Dave says.

“She’s alive, right?” Kanaya asks.

“Yes,” Equius says. “Her vitals are stable.”

“Really?” Rose asks.

“Uh-huh.” Sollux says. “He ain’t lying.”

“Thought she’d be dead by now.” Rose mutters.

“I think the chems are keeping them from feasting on her.” John posits. “Right, Jade?”

“You betcha.” Jade responds.

“Is 380 finally getting in on the action by the way?” John asks.

“Yep. Here she comes.” Rose says. “Bogey inbound.”

Rose, Tavros, Kanaya, and Gamzee are still running through the woods when they see the woman in front of them. She’s in a cloak of some kind, and her face is obscured by her long dark hair, Ring-style.

“What the fuck?” Rose wonders aloud.

The woman suddenly levitates into the air, shoots forwards with alarming speed, grabs Gamzee by the sides of his head, and then with a flash of pinkish light, he goes limp. Rose panics and fires. She tries to fire a second time but has to reload, and the woman darts into the air, flying between trees. Rose fires again, hitting only wood. A cackle echoes through the forest. Rose fires, this time breaking several branches. The woman flies down again, grabs Tavros, and in another pink flash, he’s down too. Rose gets a clear shot, but the bullet seems to go clean through the woman, who cackles and flies into the sky. Kanaya grabs her girlfriend.

“Just stay with me Kanaya, stay with me!” Rose shouts.

“Oh god…” is all her girlfriend says, clearly in shock.

Rose fires again. Nothing. The woman comes down again and Rose fires again, but once again it passes through her like she’s not even there. It grabs Kanaya, and then she’s gone too. Rose collapses to her knees at that point as the woman swoops into the sky. She presses the gun to her chin, knowing she’s next, but it jams. She curses under her breath.

“Goddammit,” she shouts. “Can’t even end it, can I!?”

The woman swoops down again, and then Rose is gone as well.

“Did you do that?” Kanaya asks Equius.

“The guns always jam in these situations.” is all Equius says. Kanaya nods.

“And we’re clear.” Rose says. “Teams, move in.”

With a dose of chems in the air keeping the zombies docile, the soldiers move in and find Feferi sitting on Eridan’s bloodied corpse, twiddling her thumbs.

“I was waiting for you.” she says. “So here I am. I’m willing, by the way.” She puts up her arms. “Is that what people do? Put their hands up?”

“You bet.” Tavros says. “Take her, fellas.”

She closes her eyes. When she opens them, she’s in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies inside a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Three down, thirteen to go.

All remaining instances of SCP-008 are either returned to containment or terminated. SCP-380 is lured back into containment with the use of a ritualistic sacrifice. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. The hole in the wall is mended with a reconstruction anomaly. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“Fucking zombies.” Eridan mutters. “How about that.”

“Strange, ain’t it?” Feferi asks, and chuckles.

“Heard the lads in the control room were making film references in there.” Eridan says.

“Well, we’re all nerds here.” Feferi comments.

“We are, aren’t we?” Eridan says.

“Indeed.” Feferi responds.

They go silent once more as the cleanup continues.

**Significant Entity:** The Fuchsia Sea

**Entity Threat Level:** 1 / Dark / Notice

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** A Field of Golden Roses, Simulated Reality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three down, thirteen to go.  
> Writing zombies was fun. Now I have to write spiders.


	10. 4 - The Spider's Web

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vriska's operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was way too much fun to write, and I basically wrote the whole thing in one morning.

SUMMER 2020

Aranea Serket died yesterday after drowning in a lake. No matter what anyone says, Vriska Serket is not broken up about it. She’s not. She’s fine.

Everything’s fine.

John is there for her every step of the way like the loving boyfriend he is, but he can’t fill the hollowness inside her no matter what he tries. She’s fairly certain that he has no idea what he’s doing, but she’s happy that he’s trying. Better that he’s here and trying his best to comfort her rather than being distant. She keeps telling herself that she’s going to be okay. Everything’s going to be fine.

1 YEAR LATER, SUMMER 2021

MAINE

Vriska rides shotgun in John’s car while Gamzee and Tavros sit in the backseat. She’s staring outside at the trees as they drive into the mountains. They eventually stop in front of a large cabin that feels a bit more like a mansion. She steps out at the same time that John does. He begins speaking to the others, but she tunes him out as she stares at the place. She doesn’t think she’s ever been surprised by anything before, but this is quite the contender, given its size. She heads straight up to her and John’s room. It’s got two beds and four windows which are split into two halves, technically giving it eight windows. She ends up passing the afternoon by hanging out with Terezi, John, Aradia, and Tavros and playing D&D with them, which is quite fun. She also notes the jukebox in the living room which John says is new and wasn’t there last time he was here.

BENEATH

“Hope none of you have any fears of any insects.” Rose says as she enters.

“I should certainly hope not.” John says. “Because they’re, uh, going to be everywhere.”

“How long do you think it will take them to start dying?” Aradia asks.

“It should not take very long, unless…” Equius says, his voice trailing off.

“These ones are easier to kill, but they’re a hassle.” John says. “I’d give it, uh, 20 minutes after first contact?”

“‘First contact’?” Jade snorts. “They’re not aliens, John.”

“Please don’t mock my interests.” John calmly says.

“Jeez man, you gotta relax.” Dave says, putting his hand on the other man’s shoulder. “You’re always so defensive about things.”

“You can blame our superior for that.” John says. “And I don’t mean Rose.”

“Wait… do you mean…” Dave says. John nods.

“If you’re quite finished over there,” Rose says, “We should get moving.” John shares an uneasy look with Dave and Jade, and they disperse. Rose speaks into the mic. “The date is August 1st, 2021. Our fourth capture is about to begin.”

“I heard that Vriska was pissed that her clone was fourth and not eighth.” Sollux says.

“Yeah, yeah, read it and weep.” Rose says. “Those gods don’t care about numbers, they care about ripping us to shreds.”

“Like they did to their home.” John says, and an uneasy silence settles. Rose breaks it.

“Alright,” she says. “Let’s do this.”

Commencing Operation “Cobalt Spider”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-277 - a whole load of giant insects

SCP-472 - Longlegs

ABOVE

Vriska wakes up at three in the morning. It’s still dark outside, unsurprisingly. There’s a spider on the window. A rather large one. It’s about the size of her hand. She sits up and goes over to look at it. That’s not even a tarantula, that’s a common house spider that’s way too big. She rubs her eyes and blinks. There are several spiders on the windows, varying in size.

“What the fuck?” she mutters under her breath as a giant centipede joins the insect mob. “John, hey. Look at this.” she says as she shakes him awake. “Wake up asshole, look.”

“What time is it?” John groggily asks, and then pauses when he sees the window. “What the hell?” he wonders aloud, sitting up and sliding on his glasses. “Why is that… big?”

“I don’t know. There’s… oh jeez.” Vriska says as she peers out the window and sees a whole lot more giant insects outside, including a spider the size of a small car. They share looks.

“We should wake the others.” John says, and Vriska nods.

The others stare out their own windows at the mass of insects heading towards the house. They exit into the main hallway, where they begin to converse.

“Dear fucking god.” Sollux says.

“John…” Jade cautiously says. “Do you have any guns?”

“Well, there’s a pair of rifles in the basement.” John says. “And also a pistol, I guess. In the living room. It’s in one of the cupboards last I checked.”

“Why the fuck do you have a pistol in the rec room?” Eridan asks.

“Don’t ask me, ask Crockercorp man.” John says.

“Can we focus on finding the guns?” Nepeta says. “Because I think the insects are going to be a problem very soon.”

On cue, a large green-ish wasp slams into the glass of Vriska’s window. Tavros jumps.

“John, you better show us where those guns are!” Jade yells and John nods, running downstairs and gesturing for them to follow after. Jade and Nepeta sprint after him. Vriska keeps staring out the window for a moment as the wasp tries to stab through it. However, she soons joins the rest of them in heading downstairs as they funnel down into the living room with the new jukebox and the pistol that’s apparently there. John grabs the pistol from one of the drawers and Nepeta and Jade come back up from the basement with a pair of hunting rifles. The front door thumps as giant insects pile against it.

“Sorry, what the fuck is the plan here?” Karkat asks here.

“Well, I guess we’re about to be under siege by a shit ton of insects.” Dave says.

“Well this is just motherfucking great.” Gamzee says.

“You guys better start grabbing anything you can.” John suggests as he raises the pistol. The others seem to take the hint. Vriska’s already got a kitchen knife, two in fact. Kanaya seems to have notably grabbed a pair of lamps without shades.

Just then, the jukebox flicks on and everyone turns as it plays a [ sound clip ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw9GNz-EYP8). Specifically, a clip from a Robocop film, a prelude to the actual song. It goes on for 33 seconds before several things happen at once;

  1. The song itself kicks in.
  2. “You have gotta be fucking kidding me!” Vriska shouts.
  3. The front door crashes in and dozens of giant insects stream in through the bottleneck. There are also hundreds of smaller insects.



Vriska stabs a giant bee as it flies at her and she sees John, Jade, and Nepeta fire one after the other, taking down only a few of the insects, which keep coming. Bugs are everywhere, clogging the room. Kanaya seems rather pissed off with the way she’s bashing them with her twin lamps. Bug blood and goop is being spilled everywhere. Sollux and Terezi seem to be having trouble with a giant scorpion. Tavros loses his cool and sprints for the stairs. Gamzee lifts up a giant centipede and straight up rips it in half, covering him in a dark brown fluid. Vriska goes back to back with John and kills a rather large spider as it tries to bite her. She can see Karkat whacking a rather large mosquito with what looks like a pool cue. Dave is next to him, stomping on a second big mosquito.

“Fucking hell!” Rose shouts, somehow audible over the buzzing and hissing. Jade fires her rifle and explodes a wasp before it stabs a hole in Vriska’s skull. Vriska gives a thumbs up and Jade nods, before smacking a scorpion the size of her head away with the gun’s stock.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit!” Karkat curses as a centipede nearly bites his hand off. Vriska slashes a giant mosquito’s head off and it drops to the ground.

Another giant mosquito grabs Aradia and lifts her into the air, inciting her to yell “Shit shit shit!” several times in a row before Equius throws a stool and slams it against the wall, causing her to drop and crush a large centipede beneath her feet as she does. Sollux is running in circles as several large bees as big as small dogs chase him. Vriska charges and takes one down. Of the other three, one keeps up the chase and the other two lose interest and fly off. Terezi impales the one with a pool cue. She nods at Vriska and they turn their attention to the giant scorpion the size of a table.

“Fuck!” Terezi shouts as her pool cue gets snapped in half by its claws. Vriska slashes its tail off before it can stab either of them and embeds the other knife in its back. It swings one of its claws and knocks Terezi to the ground, but before it can injure her further, Eridan runs in out of nowhere and rams a shovel through its head before charging off into a fray of giant spiders.

“What the fuck is even going on!?” Feferi shouts in confusion as Vriska pulls the knife out of the scorpion and accidentally knocks off one of the legs of a giant spider before she and Terezi finish it off with a combination of stabbing and kicking. Terezi also picks up the scorpion tail and stabs with that too.

“I haven’t the faintest fucking clue!” Rose shouts back. Vriska jumps over several large centipedes and slams a wasp into a spinout before it can stab John, who seems to have discarded the pistol. He grabs it and begins twisting until its head falls off. Then, he aims the stinger and starts stabbing any more bugs his way.

“Dear god, do they ever stop!?” Jade complains as a pair of gunshots rings out. Vriska throws one of her knives and stops Aradia from getting run through the neck by a giant scorpion. She uses the other one to stab a giant spider that comes too close for her liking. It elects to run the other way, accidentally robbing her of her weapon. She spots Karkat, Terezi, Sollux, and Eridan ripping several legs off of a spider that was attacking Dave.

“I fucking hate bugs!” Kanaya shouts over the buzzing and droning. Vriska, in a moment of panic, headbutts a mosquito so hard that its entire head is pulped into fluid, further darkening her clothes with brown liquid. She stomps on it for good measure, and a wasp slams into her, forcing her to grapple with it as she stumbles backwards, passing Aradia as she repeatedly slams a bee with a stool leg. She shoves the wasp into the wall, ripping one of its wings off as she does, and stomps it. Kanaya passes her, slamming flying bugs aside left and right with the lamps which she has yet to let go of.

Vriska tackles a scorpion’s tail before it can stab Kanaya in the leg, and then forces it into the creature’s own back, causing it to go limp fairly quickly. She crawls backwards as a giant spider goes for her and hisses, clearly wanting to eat her. However, surprisingly Tavros of all people comes in yelling and slices its skull in half horizontally with an axe. He helps her up.

“God, you’re heavy.” Tavros mutters.

“Get off me.” Vriska hisses back, and kicks a second smaller spider in the face and flips it upside down. Tavros turns and runs off into the fray once more, although he looks quite reluctant about the whole thing. A mosquito leaps onto Rose’s head and downs her, but Kanaya is already knocking it aside and pulping it.

“Can somebody shut off that goddamned music!” Karkat shouts.

“I can’t find the switches!” Sollux shouts back.

“Well then someone get the fuses!” Vriska responds.

“What, and kill the lights!?” Sollux yells.

“I don’t know, don’t look at me!” Vriska yells as she straight up punches a bee in the face and knocks it aside. A second one lands on her back, so she runs backwards and crushes it against the wall. She does her best to ignore the prick in her back she feels when that happens, and simply kicks a centipede near her and then stomps on it several times for good measure.

The lights start flickering at that point and Sollux is shouting something along the lines of “Goddammit Eridan” as the situation becomes harder to see. Vriska closes her eyes for a moment to spare them from the flashing, and then gets tackled by a giant spider. Rolling over, she gets on top of it and then stands and knocks it away. The lights stop flickering and Vriska realizes that the spider got her, judging by the red slash across her hand, which is shaking.

“Fuck.” she mutters. The others don’t look much better. Adrenaline is keeping them going, but it’s clear that they’re tiring, and are already getting bloody. Equius is a bit of a mess, covered in claw marks.

“We gotta get out of here.” she mutters. “We gotta get out of here!” she yells, much louder this time so everyone can hear her.

“Great idea jackass, how do we plan on doing that!?” Karkat shouts, clearly panicked.

“Back door, head for the back door!” John calls as he jumps over a centipede and crushes a downed bee under his feet.

“What do you mean, go back outside!?” Jade asks him. Suddenly, the entire front doorway caves in along with a section of wall as the giant scorpion the size of a small car breaks through and stumbles into the large living room.

“Oh, give us a fucking break!” Sollux shouts in annoyance.

The thing smacks Nepeta aside like she’s a toy with its claw, and she vanishes beneath a torrent of giant centipedes. Jade is shouting her name and firing into the mass. John sprints for the back door followed by Kanaya, who soon passes him and clears the way forwards, Rose just behind both of them. Vriska wavers on the threshold for a moment, unsure of whether to stay and help get some of the others out, several of whom are in their own jams, or run onwards and escape. Selfishness wins out, and she runs for the back door. On the way, she passes Feferi as a wasp gashes her across the neck with its stinger. For a moment she wants to go back for her technically-friend but knows that judging by where she was slashed, it’s over for her. So she keeps going and doesn’t look back, not even when she hears Feferi’s scream finally leave her throat just before she chokes on her own blood.

Jade picks up Nepeta’s discarded rifle and tosses both of them to Dave and Karkat before sprinting into the centipede wave, tearing them apart with her bare hands while screaming that she’s coming to Nepeta, just hold on. Equius seems to basically give up as soon as he realizes that he’s too bloody and injured to go on, so he uses the last of his strength to just start ripping insects to bits with his own hands before he gets too close to the giant scorpion and its tail goes straight through him and thus effectively pulverizes both his lungs and turns his heart into a meat paste, shoving his spine out of his back and splatting Aradia with bone shards. The shock seems to get to her and she barely reacts until the scorpion snatches her up in one of its claws and bites her head off. At the same time, it thrashes its tail and smashes the jukebox, killing the song and whatever frequency that was annoying it goes silent as a result and it seems much more comfortable all of a sudden.

It charges forwards and tramples Eridan underneath it as it moves, most definitely killing him. It grabs Rose around the throat with its claw and lifts her into the air. Kanaya immediately 180s and prepares to charge at it when John shouts, seemingly having looped around back inside somehow. The scorpion actually turns to face him, and that’s when Vriska realizes that he’s got a molotov cocktail, most likely created using the bar in the rec room.

“This is how we do things downtown, you prehistoric bitch!” John shouts, and then gets knocked down by a giant spider that tackles him and begins biting into his right shoulder, causing him to scream in pain as it eats away at his collarbone’s general area.

“NO! John!” Vriska shouts in panic, causing the scorpion to turn to her and also crush Rose’s neck, causing her head to pop off and inciting Kanaya to scream. The molotov still breaks though, and sets the place alight. The scorpion screeches as flames engulf it.

“John! JOHN!” Vriska shouts, but Terezi and Sollux haul her back and away from the flames and out of the house, charging away from it and towards the nearby woods. She’s not the only one struggling to get back inside, as Gamzee is struggling to free himself from Karkat and Kanaya’s grasps, screaming Tavros’ name. The flames begin to spread throughout the house, lighting everything on fire.

“John!” Vriska calls through a fit of tears, realizing that she’s crying. It feels like losing Aranea all over again, just eightfold. Gamzee’s stopped struggling, and she’s stopped struggling and for a moment she thinks that he might just really be dead until a figure crashes through one of the glass windows, stumbles over to the group, and then speaks.

“Ow.” John says. He’s a mess. Covered in brown bug fluid, a deep bite scarring his right shoulder, possibly going all the way to the bone. It’s so close that it’s at the base of his neck. Blood is streamed all down his shirt, and he’s covered in burn marks, the most notable of which is covering his arm, which is a blackened mess. He doesn’t have his glasses either. “Somebody have a cloth or something?” he asks casually as if he didn’t just nearly die.

“Guys, we should probably run!” Karkat shouts as he raises his gun. Dave does the same. There are still several dozen insects left that aren’t burning in the house, and they’re already crawling towards the group. Dave’s shot misses, but Karkat’s hits clean and blows a hole in a scorpion’s center, causing it to go limp.

“We should run.” John says in a matter-of-fact way.

So, that’s exactly what Vriska, John, Dave, Karkat, Sollux, Terezi, Kanaya, and Gamzee do.

“Goddammit, they’re going to burn the whole fucking place down.” Rose hisses under her breath. “John, I hope our temporal anomalies can fix that.”

“Oh, uh… I think so.” John says.

“Dave, what are you looking so happy about?” Rose asks.

“Mental in the beehive.” Dave says, and snickers.

“Mental in the-what?” Rose asks. “Did you rig that jukebox? Are you referencing something?”

“I rigged that jukebox.” Aradia says, smiling. She fist-bumps Dave.

“You are referencing something, aren’t you?” Rose asks, sighing. “God, sometimes I forget I work with a bunch of children. Except maybe you, John.”

“Oh, uh, thanks.” John says quickly, pushing his glasses up his face.

“You know that we’re right here.” Dave says, and Rose shoots him a look.

“I take it that Longlegs is in those woods.” Kanaya says.

“They’re going right to it, in fact.” Sollux says.

“I think it’s usually passive.” John says.

“Well, you could do your control room thing,” Jade says, “And increase its aggression.”

“Equius?” Rose asks.

“Increasing aggression.” Equius says, and slowly turns a dial after pressing a button.

Karkat is comforting Kanaya by the time that they stop running, deep in the woods in the dark at three in the morning. They’re bloody and bruised and beaten and tired, but they’ve most definitely lost the trail of the insects. Gamzee is still staring in the direction of the house.

“Jesus… what are we gonna do?” Dave says. “We’re stuck out here.”

“Who you gonna call?” John deliriously asks, trying to stay awake. Vriska ignores the aching throb in her back and the dizziness she feels.

“John, we are not in the mood for your fucking references.” Terezi says.

“Sorry, just…” John says. “Trying to lighten the mood.” he closes his eyes.

“John, stay awake for me.” Vriska says.

“Jeez, I’m just blinking…” John says, his voice trailing off.

“Hey, do you guys hear that?” Sollux asks, and everyone tenses up. There’s a faint crashing, like if something was moving through the trees, but they can’t see anything.

“Motherfuck, there!” Gamzee calls, and points.

“Where?” Dave asks, aiming his gun frantically.

“The trees man, the motherfucking-” Gamzee says and is cut off when a large tree lifts up and stomps on him. Well, it only looks like a tree. It’s actually a leg attached to a giant spider thing.

“Holy fuck.” Vriska says.

“Kill it, kill it!” Karkat shouts as he trips and falls in panic.

“Gun up, Karks, gun up!” Dave calls and raises his rifle, firing. Karkat hesitates but soon starts firing too. The creature seems relatively undeterred by this, and lowers itself on its tree-like legs and drops down a meaty sack from its stomach that opens to reveal a mouth of sorts that grabs Terezi and swallows her whole.

“Terezi!” Vriska calls, and John starts to get up, stumbling as he does. The creature moves one of its legs and knocks Karkat aside so it can pin Kanaya by one of her hands, causing her to scream in pain before the maw-like sack scoops her up too. Sollux is crying and slamming its legs with his hands, as if that will do anything. The thing then seems to head for Karkat.

“Fuck it!” Dave calls, and aims at the creature’s eye, or at least where its eye should be, where the eye usually is on a spider. There are orange globular objects instead, so Dave shoots one of those. It stops going for Karkat, who is curled up in a ball, and lets out a scream of some kind that echoes through the forest and turns the throb in Vriska’s back into a stabbing pain and she collapses, groaning in pain. It turns to Dave, and he drops his gun and gets lifted into the air, his eyes rolling back into his head as his shades fall from his face.

Karkat calls his name, and they hear a strange eldritch chanting. The stars in the sky seem to become eyes, watching every single one of them, and then they’re all lifted into the air by their throats by some invisible force. Dave’s arms spread wide, and he gets torn into four pieces by an invisible force. There’s a piercing shrill tone for a moment, and then pure silence as the remains of Dave splatter on the ground. Karkat is crying. One by one, they each get brought over to Dave’s former position, and one by one they get mulched. Vriska feels incredibly calm for some reason when her turn comes, but she doesn’t get ripped apart. Instead, the creature hisses, and she drops to the ground, landing amidst the gory mess. The thing stumbles back.

 **NO** a voice shouts inside her head, and then she isn’t Vriska anymore.

Spider cracks her neck. “Stuck in this pitiful human form. I’ll make do.” She raises her arms and rises into the air, causing the eyes in the sky to close and the giant spider to cower.

“Tavros, Nepeta, do not engage, repeat, do not engage.” Rose says.

“What are we supposed to do then?” Nepeta asks. “We can’t wait long for apotheosis!”

“472 is still hostile, wait for it to wind down.” Rose says. “I’ll give you the signal.” Several agonizingly long seconds pass before Rose speaks. “Now.” she finally says.

Spider turns and snarls as she feels her powers flicker and fail. “What is this?” she growls.

“It’s a Scranton, that’s what it is.” Tavros says, waving hello.

“Take her.” Nepeta says.

Spider struggles, but being in a vulnerable human body, gets knocked out easily. She wakes up in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies inside a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Four down, twelve to go.

All instances of SCP-277 are lured back to their containment cell using pheromones. SCP-472 cooperatively returned to its cell upon calming down from its ordeal. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. The fire damage that isn’t undone with temporal anomalies is dealt with using various Scranton Reality Polishers from the lolfoundation side of things. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“Well that worked out pretty well.” John says.

“You bet it did.” Vriska says. “Pity they didn’t call security out near the end there. Could have had a real problem.”

“All you’ve got is guns.” John says, chuckling. A few old memories are brought to the forefront. “You just-” he pauses, as if sensing something wrong.

“Do you feel that?” John asks, staring up at the sky. “Something’s wrong.”

“John?” Vriska asks. “Are you alright?”

“I…” John says, uncertain. There is nothing wrong, he decides. He’s just making things up in his head. “Sorry, I’m just tired.” he says.

“Right. Better get some rest.” Vriska says. “We’ve still got a lot ahead of us.”

**Significant Entity:** The Cobalt Spider

 **Entity Threat Level:** 2 / Vlam / Caution

 **Entity Capture:** Successful

 **Avoided Incidents:** The Story of Your Life, The Eight Hosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BUGS!  
> The whole 20 Seconds to Comply business is most definitely a reference. Also I just really wanted to put it in there.  
> Anyone who's seen Shaun of the Dead may recognize a few of the lines.  
> Yes, John did try and say a Ghostbusters one liner.  
> Something to ponder on: John felt something off, what could he be sensing?


	11. 5 - The Huntress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nepeta's operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is a shorter chapter and the real focus should be on the technicians, frankly. John's feeling a bit kooky and we get some relationship explanation clone-wise.

AUTUMN 2020

Jade finds Nepeta lying on her bed, staring at the blinds on the window. She lies down behind her and puts her around her.

“I’m here Nep.” Jade says. “I’m here.”  
“She’s gone Jade.” Nepeta whispers. “I don’t even know what to say.”

Meulin was killed a few hours ago from being poisoned. Nobody knows how or why.

“It was so pointless.” Nepeta says. “She didn’t deserve that.”

“Death is pointless.” Jade says. “When I was a kid, my grandfather died for no reason. It’s just life. But we have to move forwards. It’s the only way.”

“Wow, is that supposed to comfort me?” Nepeta asks.

“I dunno.” Jade says, shrugging. “I’m not really the best at comforting.”

“Well, I do appreciate your efforts.” Nepeta says. She turns to face Jade.

“I’m here for you, okay?” Jade says. Nepeta nods, blinking away tears. “I’m here for you.”

“Oh god.” Nepeta chokes out and lets Jade embrace her, crying into her chest.

“I’ve got you.” Jade whispers. “I’ve got you.”

They stay like that for probably an hour at least.

1 YEAR LATER, AUTUMN 2021

MAINE

“This is going to be fun.” Jade says as their car drives up into the mountains. Equius is driving and Aradia is riding shotgun, while Nepeta and Jade sit in the backseat.

“Too bad there isn’t a lake or something, I heard Feferi was a little disappointed by that.” Nepeta says. Jade shrugs.

“Oh well.” Jade says. “I’m sure she’ll find something to do with herself.”

“What do you think we should do?” Nepeta asks.

“Well, we’ve got the weekend to do whatever we want.” Jade says.

“Well then, I suppose we’ll have to see just how many options we have.” Nepeta says.

The car stops and they step out. The cabin is big, more like a mansion that a cabin.

“Wow, that’s… big.” Jade says.

“I still can’t believe your family owns this, John.” Karkat says.

“Well, Crockercorp has a lot of money.” John says.

John opens the door, revealing a beautiful interior. One by one, people shuffle inside. Jade and Nepeta are the last ones inside. They head up to their room, which has two beds and a nice big circular window on the wall.

“This is nice.” Nepeta says as she flops down on her bed. Jade takes the other one. “Smells pretty nice too.”

“Mmhm.” Jade says. “Old wood and pines.”

“So, what do you want to do first?” Nepeta asks.

“Want to go hang out in the woods?” Jade asks.

“Why not.” Nepeta says.

The woods are surprisingly quiet given their size, with little but the wind rustling through the trees. It’s nice out here, though. Peaceful even. It’s Nepeta who finds the cat.

“Hey Jade, come over here, there’s a cat!” Nepeta calls. Jade comes over and finds a black cat with orange-ish eyes sitting and staring up at Nepeta, who is approaching it slowly.

“What’s it doing out here?” Jade asks.

“Maybe it’s a stray.” Nepeta suggests. She reaches out. “It’s ok.” she whispers. It hisses and turns and runs off. “Dammit.” Nepeta sighs.

“Oh well. You tried.” Jade says. “No sense chasing it. Maybe it already has a home.”

BELOW

“John, you’re not looking too good.” Rose says as she enters.

“Below.” John whispers. “It says Below, not Beneath.”

“Riiiight.” Rose says. “I have no idea what that means but I’ll take your word for it.”

“Shall we get moving?” Sollux asks, seeming impatient.

“You alright Sollux? You seem a bit energetic.” Aradia says.

“Sorry. Just got a kid on the way, that’s all.” Sollux says.

“Uh, Rose, question for you.” Jade says, taking the other woman aside.

“Yeah?” Rose asks. “What is it?”

“I was just thinking… a lot of our interests and personalities carried over to our clones.” Jade says. “Right?” Rose nods.

“Right.” Rose says.

“Does the same go for… desires?” Jade hesitantly asks.

“Thinking about our primary wrangler?” Rose asks, waggling her eyebrows.

Jade covers her reddening face. “Ugh.” she groans.

“Why don’t you talk to her?” Rose asks. “I’m sure that the feelings are shared, given the fact that your two clones are together.”

“Ugh.” Jade groans again. Rose passes her and goes over to the mic.

“Copy, this is Mission Control.” Rose says. “The date is September 4th, 2021. Commencing Capture 5.”  
  


Commencing Operation "Sage Heart"

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-036 - Discount Wendigo

SCP-611 - Death Cats (Cats who kill you)

ABOVE

Nepeta opens her eyes. It’s three in the morning, judging by the clock on the wall. She sits up and squints, rubbing her eyes before staring out the window. The trees are swaying as something big moves through them. She instinctively leaps up and moves towards the floor as a large grey shape walks out of the trees and turns its head towards the cabin. It’s humanoid, but incredibly skinny and its facial features are hard to make out in the darkness. It stares at Nepeta’s window and she drops from a crouch to lying down to crawling under her bed. Whatever it is lumbers over to the window and stares into the room for what feels like an incredibly long time. Eventually, it turns and leaves.

“Jade, Jade, wake up!” Nepeta hisses as she shakes her girlfriend awake. Jade moans.

“Why’d you wake me up?” Jade asks.

“There’s something outside.” Nepeta says.

“What?” Jade asks, sitting up.

Heading out into the hallway, Nepeta finds that she’s not the only one who’s been woken by the strange creature. The others are there and already conversing.

“What the hell’s going on?” Vriska asks.

“There’s something outside.” Sollux says.

“Guys, did you, uh, hear that?” Tavros asks as he stands at the stairs.

“Hear what?” Aradia asks.

“Oh god.” Tavros suddenly says as he stares at something.

“What is it, Tavros?” Jade asks and goes over to him and then stops. “What the fuck.” Nepeta peeks over her shoulder. There’s a black cat like the one from earlier but it’s massive, more like the size of a lion. It is simply sitting and staring. Tavros sneezes. It hisses and then bounds up the stairs suddenly, slamming into Jade before she can even speak and grabbing her head in its large jaws and dragging her back down, screaming all the way. Nepeta instantly starts to bolt after her, but Equius holds her back while Jade’s screams slowly fade as it crushes her skull and windpipes slowly, right in plain view.

“No Nepeta, stay back from it!” Equius shouts.

“JADE!!!” Nepeta sobs out in between her own screams. She can hear the others screaming, and Equius turns to see another massive panther-like cat tackling Aradia and slowly ripping her throat out. Equius seems completely torn but opts to hold onto Nepeta, already knowing that his girlfriend is most likely dead. Someone gets slammed sideways into a wall, and that’s around when the fight goes out of Nepeta and she goes slack, staring in silent horror as Jade is devoured by the large cat. Behind them, there are more sounds of carnage and yelling. The giant cat at the bottom of the stairs licks its paws and walks off with the body heading outside through a suspiciously opened door. Nepeta turns and sees that the hallway is now a bloody mess. The large cat on the other end of the hall is currently being whacked with various improvised objects by a few of the others, but Nepeta’s fairly certain that Aradia, Kanaya, Gamzee, Tavros, and Sollux have been slaughtered in some way, shape, or form.

“Oh, jesus…” John says. “What the fuck… what the fuck!” he’s rather covered in blood, and it seems to be getting to him. Nepeta’s still processing what just happened and too focused on that to think about anything else. Jade is dead. Jade is dead. **Jade is dead.**

“Shit man, we gotta get out of here.” Karkat says.

“We gotta get to the cars.” Terezi says.

“Right. Follow me.” John says, and, grabbing a sledgehammer from his room (because he apparently had that) and gesturing for the others to follow him downstairs. Nepeta follows, but she’s catatonic. She practically clings to Equius, and he practically leans on her for support, both having lost their girlfriends. The group encounters no other threats until they get outside and near the cars.

The vehicles are smashed, as if something large has stepped on them. And indeed something has, for stepping around the side of the cabin is the massive gray humanoid from earlier, allowing everyone to get a better look at it. It has a reptilian face shaped like a crocodile’s but has a pair of small antlers on its head. It opens its mouth and a low moaning noise comes out. It steps forwards with surprising speed.

“Fuck, run!” Dave shouts, and everyone immediately scatters in panic. It scoops up Eridan and Feferi, one in each hand, and bites both of their heads off one after another, dropping their corpses to the ground as blood sprays from their necks’ stumps. Dave and Karkat run back into the house, Terezi runs to hide behind the cars, and John, Rose, Nepeta, Vriska, and Equius scatter into the forest, with Nepeta sticking with Equius. They keep running, going faster when they hear John’s screaming and Vriska’s shouting followed by Vriska screaming. They don’t stop until they can’t hear anyone else. A single gunshot breaks the silence, but beyond that it is simply the two of them alone. They eventually stop.

“I must rest.” Equius pants, sweating profusely. “Keep going, do not wait for me.”

“Equius, I’m staying with-” Nepeta cuts herself off mid-sentence. She steps back.

“Nepeta?” Equius asks. “Are you alright? Nepeta?”

Nepeta’s expression changes as her lips curl into a smile. “Sorry Equius,” she says. “But Nepeta’s not in control anymore.”

“What?” Equius asks. She places her hand on his shoulder and he immediately dies, going limp.

“Huh, guess I can still do that.” Lion says. She pauses, and snarls. She feels her powers flicker and die as a device of some sort neutralizes them. “What is this?” she growls when the real Nepeta steps out from behind the trees holding a specialized rifle.

“Scranton Reality Anchor, alternate me.” Nepeta says. “Sorry not sorry.”

She fires the gun. Lion opens her eyes a few hours later. She’s in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies inside a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Five down, eleven to go.

SCP-036 is returned to its cell with an occult ritual. The twin instances of SCP-611 are returned to containment upon conversion to normal cat form. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

Jade finds Nepeta in the breaker room post operation.

“So I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink later.” Jade says.

“Smooth, Jade.” Nepeta says. “But that’d be fine.”

“Really?” Jade asks. Nepeta nods. “Sweet.” Jade says.

**Significant Entity:** The Sage Heart

 **Entity Threat Level:** 2 / Vlam / Caution

 **Entity Capture:** Successful

 **Avoided Incidents:** Early Warning, All in a Row

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That thing with the creature the same height as the building is one of my fears, that a monster could be so tall that it could stare at me through any window in the house.  
> We're getting closer to some important stuff.  
> Jade is next, by the way. That one's going to be interesting.


	12. 6 - Howl at the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade's operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are growing shorter, and there's a reason for that. One which we'll soon get to understand.

AUTUMN 2020

Jake English is dead because of an earthquake, and Jade Harley is left to pick up the pieces. Her head lays on Nepeta’s lap as the other girl strokes her hair. “I can’t believe he’s dead.” she whispers. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t say anything.” Nepeta says. “Just rest.”

“Ok.” Jade whispers.

“It’s going to hurt for a long time.” Nepeta says. “But don’t worry. It’s not the end of the world.”

“Yeah.” Jade says. “It’ll get better.”

1 YEAR LATER, AUTUMN 2021

MAINE

Aradia and Equius sit in the back seat while Jade drives and Nepeta rides shotgun. Jade remains focused on the road, while Nepeta keeps staring out at the pines as they drive up into the mountains. They stop and get out near the massive mansion of a cabin. Jade’s feeling pretty tired because of her narcolepsy kicking in, so she lets Nepeta half-drag her to their room and she immediately flops on one of the beds.

“Ugh.” she groans into the pillow. “So tired.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” Nepeta says, playing with Jade’s hair as she lies down next to her.

“I hate it some days.” Jade says. “Still, can’t do too much about it.”

“Just rest, Jade.” Nepeta says. “I’ll be here whenever you wake up.”

So, Jade closes her eyes.

BENEATH

“John, you’re really not looking too good.” Rose says. “Sure you shouldn’t take some time off?”

“No Rose, I have to observe the narrative.” John says. “I think it might have been hijacked.”

“I will take your word for it. You know more about all that than me.” Rose says. “Alright, how are we all doing?”

“Just fine.” Kanaya says.

“Great as ever, Rose.” Dave says. “Chill and cool.”

“You might be chill, but you’re not cool Dave.” Rose says.

“Come on sis, accept the truth.” Dave says. Rose rolls her eyes.

“The date is October 30th, 2021.” Rose says. “Commencing capture six.”

“Numero seis.” Dave says loudly in a mock accent as he spins in his chair.

“Shut it.” Rose says.

Commencing Operation “Emerald Wolf”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-2787 - The Anomalous Wolves of Thompson Church

SCP-3850 - Wolf-Skin

ABOVE

Jade wakes up at three in the morning. Not entirely uncommon given her narcolepsy, but something doesn’t feel natural about this. Something feels wrong. She stands and stares out the ovular window. There’s a wolf outside. She blinks.

_ Oh. _

That’s a wolf standing on its hind legs.

Her first thought is  _ WTF _ and her next thought is  _ Nope nope nope nope just a nightmare _ and turns away, getting back into her bed and sitting there and staring at the ceiling. After a minute like that she stares out the window again. Gone. Just a nightmare.

_ Crash _

“Ffffuck.” Jade audibly mutters. There’s another  _ crash _ and what sounds like something trying to be silent as it walks into the building. She slowly goes into the hallway. John is out of his room.

“Did you hear that?” he quietly asks. Jade nods.

“There’s something in the house.” Jade whispers.

“Some _ thing _ ?” John asks. “Not some _ one _ ?”

“What’s the difference?” Jade asks.

“Someone implies a person. Something implies non-human.” John says.

“I don’t know.” Jade says. “There was a wolf, it…”

They hear a low growling sound and look down the stairs to see a nightmare-fuel inducing image of a wolf standing on two legs at the base of the stairs growling. Then it howls loudly. It seems to wait patiently as everyone else trickles out of their rooms.

“Oh dear.” Equius says.

“What the fuck do we do?” Karkat whisper-yells.

“Nobody panic.” John says.

It growls and starts to calmly walk up the stairs.

“Ok, everybody panic!” John half-yells. Everyone panics as expected and they start stampeding backwards as the speed of the thing increases. It gets to Equius first and straight up rips his head off, splattering Jade, Aradia, Nepeta, and John in blood and causing Aradia to scream. It simply slams Jade aside and she wavers on the edge of the stairs for a moment before she falls down them and tumbles to the bottom while the others scream and the thing starts tearing them to bits. Jade tries to stand but can’t feel her legs. She’s hit with a burst of panic and tries and fails to stand up. Eventually, the screams and shouts fade and the thing walks right past her as if it doesn’t even notice her. She tries again to stand and pauses. Something shifts in her brain.

Wolf stands easily, dragging Jade’s body around like a meat puppet. Her control is not entirely solid and occasionally Jade clips back in, but she doesn’t worry about that. She wanders into the woods, following the other humans. She can sense that the only ones left are Nepeta, Karkat, and Tavros. She finds Karkat hiding behind a tree, curled up in a ball.

“Jade?” Karkat asks. “Oh my god. What the fuck happened to you? How’d you escape?”

“That’s irrelevant.” Wolf says. “Hold still, I need to test something.”

A second later, she turns into an oversized wolf and bites his entire head off in a single chomp. “Huh.” she says, still in wolf form. “Still got it.”

Wolf keeps going, flickering into Jade for a moment before stumbling upon the Wolf-Skin. It bows to her, respecting her status as a wolf goddess. She nods at it, and it turns and runs off. She passes Tavros getting mauled by the Anomalous Wolves of Thompson Church and flickers to Jade’s mind (but not her human form) for four seconds, but that isn’t what makes her change back. What makes her change back is Nepeta, who is looking her dead in the eyes.

“Jade?” she cautiously asks. “Is that you?”

Jade tries to speak but growls instead, and whines as a result. Nepeta kneels down so she’s level with Jade’s head. For a moment she flickers into Wolf and snarls, but changes back immediately, seeming to shrink as if trying to fight against Wolf’s influence.

“It is you.” Nepeta says as she looks into Jade’s eyes. “I can feel it. What… what happened to you?” Jade whines again. She growls and snaps her teeth at Nepeta, who jumps back for a moment, but creeps closer when Jade changes back. “You’re trapped in there, fighting it, aren’t you?” Nepeta whispers. “Oh god baby… just…” Nepeta briefly sobs. “Just fight it. You can do it.” she chokes out. “Come on Jade. I believe in you.”

At that point, Wolf takes over completely and mauls Nepeta to death.

To her credit, Nepeta does not scream. She doesn’t yell in pain. She does get out one last “I love you” before Wolf rips her throat out. Wolf changes back to human, but the shift gives control back to Jade, who collapses to her knees next to Nepeta’s bloody corpse, more from despair than the broken spine. She cradles the body, crying. She does that for what feels like hours. Eventually, she closes her eyes to blink away tears and Wolf takes control. However, Wolf wakes in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Six down, ten to go.

All generated instances of SCP-2787 are terminated. SCP-3850 is lured back into containment via an occult ritual. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

Jade and Nepeta sit and watch the cleanup operation.

“The ending of all that was pretty messed up.” Jade says. “Guess I’m just thinking about us.”

“Oh well. Young me is dead, but I’m not.” Nepeta says. She leans her head on Jade’s shoulder.

Jade hesitates for a moment, but does the same.

**Significant Entity:** The Emerald Wolf

**Entity Threat Level:** 2 / Vlam / Caution

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** The Gatekeeper’s Key, Reality’s Endgame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NUMERO SEIS!  
> Everybody panic! - The only light moment in this fic, I think.  
> Also Jade got paralyzed, not Tavros. Subversion (?)  
> Tavros getting mauled by wolves will get brought up later.  
> Also to be honest, the whole bit with Jade and Nepeta at the end there messed me up a little bit.


	13. 7 - The Long Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Equius' Operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're getting shorter.

WINTER 2020

“I am perfectly fine, Aradia.” Equius insists.

“I doubt that, Equius.” Aradia says. “You just lost your brother.”

Equius stiffens. Horuss suffocated the other day and Equius isn’t entirely sure what to feel. He and Horuss shared similar interests, but he wasn’t very close to his foster brother in the same way he was close to his friends. “I’m fine.” he firmly insists.

“You can keep telling yourself that, but…” Aradia says and hangs off his shoulder. “If you need to talk to somebody, I’ll be right here.”

“I appreciate your concern Aradia.” Equius says. “But I will be fine.”

The thing that scares Equius the most isn’t the death of his brother, no. The thing that scares him is his relative apathy towards the whole situation.

1 YEAR LATER, WINTER 2021

MAINE

Equius drives the car up into the mountains, focused on the road ahead the whole way whilst next to him, Aradia stares at the trees and Nepeta and Jade talk in the backseat. He’s the last one out when he stops the car at the mansion-sized cabin. He tunes everyone else’s chatter out and follows everyone else inside, gesturing to Aradia that he’s heading upstairs to their room, inciting her to follow him. It’s got a triangular window and a pair of beds, one of which he tosses his stuff onto and then sits on. Aradia takes out a book and starts reading, but Equius simply stares at the ceiling for a while before he leaves to go find Nepeta or somebody else to socialize with. He finds Nepeta and Jade playing each other in chess and comments occasionally whilst whispering strategies in Nepeta’s ear despite her insistence that she knows what she’s doing. It’s all good. Life is good.

BENEATH

“I can’t believe you robbed our Christmas eves, Rose.” Dave says. He’s got a santa hat on.

“Deal with it Dave.” Rose says, and then asks “Where’s John?”

“I don’t know, he just sort of flipped out and left.” Jade says.

“I see.” Rose says.

“He was going on about narratives and people in control and shit.” Dave says. “It was… odd.”

“I am fairly certain mister Egbert has lost it.” Equius says.

“Nah, he just knows more about universes than us.” Rose says. “And other things. He’s not crazy, he’s just… odd.”

“Sometimes I wonder what his deal is.” Sollux says. “Where he came from… and where he’s going.” he shrugs.

“Ever think he might be one of the Administrator’s friends the same way the Director apparently is?” Kanaya asks.

“If you could all pause your speculating, we gotta get this show on the road.” Rose says and goes over to the mic. “The date is December 24th, 2021. Commencing our seventh capture.”

Commencing Operation “The Indigo Void”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-642 - Things of the Dark

SCP-4661 - The Last Unicorn

ABOVE

Equius opens his eyes and notices that it’s three in the morning. For some reason, he finds himself walking out into the hallway. He’s about to go down the stairs but pauses. The downstairs is dark. And not dark as in hard-to-see, but dark as in pitch black. A void of sorts. He tenses up and flicks on the hallway light. It barely illuminates the downstairs.

“What in the…” he mutters.

“Equius?” a voice says, and Equius turns to see Feferi sticking her head out of her door and rubbing her eyes. “What are you doing up?”

“I don’t know, I…” Equius says, and the lights suddenly flick off, plunging them into darkness. He flips the light switch on and off. Nothing. “What the…” he says. He flinches for a moment as he sees something move in the pitch black darkness. A fast shape that makes him step back as it vanishes. “There’s… something down there.”

“Something?” Feferi asks.

“Yes. But I cannot see what.” Equius says.

“This is too creepy.” Feferi says. “So fuck it, I’m waking the others.”

“I suppose that might be wise.” Equius says. “Just in case.”

One by one, they wake everyone and file into the hallway, staring down the stairs.

“So.” John says. “Who wants to go first?” nobody says anything for a while.

“Fuck it, I’ll do it.” Karkat offers. “Do you have a flashlight?” John nods and hands Karkat a flashlight from his room.

“Well I’m coming with you man.” Dave says, and Karkat nods.

“Stay behind me.” Karjat says, and they slowly descend the stairs, stepping into the darkness, the flashlight their only light. They round a corner and disappear completely. Soon, the sounds of their voices fade too. They all stare into the darkness for a while, and Equius squints, trying to see something. Once again, he sees a shape dart through the black. But it’s much more discernible as a shadowy figure.

“Did any of you see that?” Equius asks.

“I saw that, what the fuck was that?” Eridan says.

The hallway suddenly plunges into pitch black darkness.

“Oh, fuck!” Sollux shouts. “There’s something-!”

They all see the shadowy figure as it slowly moves up the stairs towards them, and everyone scrambles back in a panic. Gamzee stands transfixed by it for a moment too long and it grabs him, seeming to suck him into the darkness, whereupon he disappears entirely.

“Gamzee!” Tavros shouts mournfully.

“Back up, back up!” John shouts, his voice joining the chorus of shouts and screams. Equius stumbles through the darkness backwards towards the room at the end of the hall, which seems to be where everyone else is going. Judging by how the voices are fading one by one, his friends are getting picked off. Is this what panic feels like?

“Aradia!” he shouts.

“Equius!” she shouts back. He follows her voice and his sense of direction until he stumbles into the room at the end of the hallway, where his friends are conglomerated. Or rather, what’s left of his friends. John, Jade, Aradia, Sollux, Rose, Kanaya, Terezi, and him. Kanaya’s got a large gash up her arm and Rose is holding her and telling her to hang on. Equius hugs Aradia. He stares out the window at the cars out front.

“This is bad… oh fuck this is bad.” Sollux says.

“We have to get out of here.” Jade says.

“We can get out the back door.” John suggests. “Make a run for the cars.”

“Kanaya can’t make it.” Rose says. “We’ve gotta hunker down.”

“Hunker down? Are you crazy?” Sollux asks. “Those things can kill the lights like that.” he snaps his fingers for effect. “And then they can kill us. We can’t make it by staying here.”

“Well then… well then… half of us go.” John suggests.

“What, and leave the others behind?” Sollux asks.

“Sollux, Sollux, calm it.” Terezi says.

“I will go.” Equius says.

“Then I’m going with you.” Aradia says.

“I’ll show you the way. Anyone else?” John asks.

“Fuck it, I’m going with you.” Jade says.

“Alright then.” John says. “Sollux, Terezi, Rose, Kanaya, hold on. We’ll get help.”

“Fuck, we’re all going to die…” Sollux whispers.

John, Jade, Aradia, and Equius hurry downstairs quickly, rooms going pure black around them. They push out the back door and into the open air, looping around front towards the large clearing and heading towards the four cars there. As John tries to start his car, Equius turns back to look at the cabin.

“Oh god.” he whispers.

It is entirely black inside, including in the room they were just in. Jade covers her mouth and John gasps before the engine starts. And that’s when Equius sees it. A pale horse on the fringes of the woods, seemingly glowing with energy. It has a silvery horn on its head. It’s a unicorn.

“Um, what the…” Jade says.

It snorts, lowers its head, and charges.

“Oh, fuck.” Aradia mutters as she leaps into the car, Equius following. John starts moving and it stabs into the opposite side door, spearing Jade in the chest, who screams.

“Fuck!” John shouts and drives faster as the thing chases them as soon as it wrenches its horn free. He keeps driving, heading for the road and trying to escape, get away.

“Shit, why haven’t you blown the mountain already?” Rose hisses.

“It won’t let me!” Aradia hisses.

“What do you mean ‘it won’t let you’?” Rose asks.

“I can’t do it, they’re gonna get away!” Aradia shouts.

“Goddammit!” Dave mutters, and pulls up his walkie-talkie. “Karkat, come in, come in, we have a bit of a situation here!”

“What is it, what’s wrong?” Karkat asks.

“They’re getting away, and the mountain’s still in one piece, we have to blow it!” Dave shouts.

“Copy that, I’m getting an RPG. Hey, out of the way!” Karkat’s voice cuts out.

“Don’t worry Rose, I got it!” Dave says.

“Just hold on Jade, just hold on.” John says as they begin to drive down a bend in the road next to a cliff. Jade is gasping. “Wait, what’s-” he says as a flash of light briefly flickers in the woods and a puff of smoke emanates as a dark shape flies up and strikes the cliff. One explosion later, it’s coming down on top of them. John and Jade are crushed, and Aradia has her head pulped open, but Equius survives. However, not as Equius. As something else, as Dark. But when he opens his human body’s eyes, he is in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Seven down, nine to go.

The instances of SCP-642 are returned with the use of several Ghost Lights. SCP-4661 is returned to a passive state and placed back in its cell. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. The damage to the cliff is cleaned up and swept away. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“That was quick.” Aradia says as her and Equius stare at the cleanup.

“I suppose it was.” Equius says.

“Strange. They’re getting quicker.” Aradia says.

“I fail to see how that is a bad thing.” Equius says.

“Yeah?” Aradia snickers. “John thought it was for some reason. He said that shorter was worse, that something was wrong. He said it wasn’t the gods, it was something else.”

“Personally, I believe he is crazy.” Equius says.

“Don’t let him hear you say that.” Aradia says. “Strange. The shorter they get, the more problems we have. Conversions coming early. Faulty systems.”

“I suppose it is rather odd.” Equius says. “Oh, and Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too.” Aradia says. They go silent once more.

**Significant Entity:** The Indigo Void

**Entity Threat Level:** 3 / Keneq / Warning

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** The End of Everything that Stands, The Monoliths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> John's off somewhere, something's hijacking the narrative, things are getting stranger, and we aren't even at the halfway point operation-wise!


	14. 8 - The Trees Have Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat's Operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're at the halfway point.

WINTER 2021

Kankri Vantas died four hours ago of cancer. How stupidly ironic, Karkat thinks. So, for once, he’s actually voluntarily letting his boyfriend cradle him and whisper soft words in his ear.

“I don’t really know what to say, man.” Dave says.

“Then just keep your mouth shut, Strider.” Karkat whispers. “Fuck, he was… he was so insufferable, but it hurts so much, why?”

“Because…” Dave says. “Because he was your brother, man.”

“Fuck.” Karkat whispers. “That he was.”

Karkat cries and cries and lets Dave hold him close.

1 YEAR LATER, WINTER 2022

MAINE

Dave drives the car up into the hills while Karkat sits next to him. Sollux and Terezi are in the back seat, conversing about something Karkat doesn’t give a shit about. To be honest, he isn’t entirely certain why he agreed to go on this trip in the first place. The car stops, and he steps outside to behold the cabin that is more like a mansion.

“I still can’t believe your family owns this, John.” Karkat says.

“Well, Crockercorp is rich.” John says.

Karkat tails Dave inside as John leads them in. The inside is beautiful (although Karkat would never admit it) and he heads straight up to his room, which has a boring and bland square window on the wall as well as a pair of beds. Karkat drops his stuff at the foot of his bed and sits down on it, staring at the ceiling. Dave takes the other bed.

“So…” he says. “We should talk.”

“About what in particular, Dave?” Karkat asks. “God. You keep throwing me under the bus.”

“I’m sorry man, I never mean to.” Dave says.

“So you say.” Karkat says. “That’s what you always say. And then you scapegoat me accidentally or intentionally. I’m always taking the pain for you. Literally, in the case of-”

“Please don’t talk about that.” Dave says with a serious edge to his voice.

“Sorry.” Karkat says. “Look, I just want to talk it out, Dave.”

“Alright.” Dave says. “But can we just talk it out later?”

“Fine.” Karkat says. “But we’re having the talk at some point.”

BENEATH

“Sorry I’m late.” Rose says when she walks in.

“You’re far from late, actually.” Kanaya says.

“Isn’t this the one that we’re doing earlier though?” Sollux asks.

“Yes it is. At 10 PM, not 3 AM.” Rose says.

“Why are we doing it earlier exactly?” Equius asks.

“Because the Director said so.” Rose says, motioning to the golden phone on the wall.

“Oh.” Equius says, nodding his head and shivering.

“Alright, let’s get started.” Rose says. “Dave, you’re being quiet.”

“I think he’s asleep.” Jade says. “It’s hard to tell with those shades on.”

“Well, he’s being quiet. Wake him if anything goes south.” Rose says. “Alright.” she goes over to the mic. “The date is January 15th, 2022.” Rose says. “Commencing our eighth capture. We’re nearly halfway out of this, people. Everyone hold on.”

Commencing Operation “Scarlet Grove”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-250 - Blood Crabs

SCP-4951 - An Angry Cedar Tree

ABOVE

Everyone is conglomerated in the living room around a table, joking with each other and having fun. John comes downstairs once more, having moved something from one of the living room cabinets upstairs. Dave shares a glance with Karkat. They stand and walk away from the table and go into one of the side hallways.

“Alright, you want to know why I’m always putting problems on you?” Dave asks. “Because I’ve got way too much of my own.”

“Like what?” Karkat asks.

“My asshole pentecostal parents are abusive, for one thing, and always trying to force me into religion when I would prefer being an atheist.” Dave says. “They beat me, too. You’re always wondering where I get all those bruises. Bingo.” Dave pauses. “And I have to care for myself a lot of the time, you know. My life sucks, Karks. That’s why I’m so… defensive and blaming everyone else for all my problems. I have enough on my plate as is.”

“Wait… that’s why?” Karkat asks, trying to blink away the tears in his eyes. Dave nods.

“Yeah. Sorry.” Dave says, shrugging. Karkat immediately wraps him in a hug.

“Why didn’t you just tell me about all of that, asshole?” Karkat asks.

“Idk.” Dave says.

“Did you seriously just say idk?” Karkat asks.

“You bet.” Dave says.

Karkat opens his mouth, but then he hears the screaming and turns to the door and sprints into the main room, Dave following him. Eridan has a hook of some kind stuck through his shoulder and is being dragged backwards into the grasp of… a giant crab with the hooks for hands. And a tail. With a buzzsaw attached to it. **That is currently sawing Eridan’s legs off and moving onto his torso.**

“Holy FUCK!” Karkat yells, his voice joining everyone else’s screams and yells.

“Oh my god!” Sollux shouts.

“ERIDAN!” Feferi shouts as Gamzee and Tavros hold her back from running to him.

The thing lifts him up and cuts his head in half vertically and horizontally, then does the same to his body. Dropping the pieces of his corpse to the ground, it saws them a few more times for good measure, and then turns to them. Two more creep around the doorway that the creature is in. They pause to stare at the remaining fifteen people.Then, one by one, they wind up their buzzsaws, creating a chorus of whining metal.

“RUN!” John shouts in a panic.

“Get to higher ground!” Sollux shouts, and as everyone runs around in a panic, a few of them head for the stairs. One hooks Equius’ ankle and pins him, sawing his head off, spraying blood all over the ground. Another one thrusts its saw-tail forwards and catches Aradia in the back, punching a whole straight through her and grinding her guts. Dave breaks Karkat out of his stupor and drags him towards the stairs. Behind them, Gamzee decides to escape by slamming the door open and running out into the woods. Surprisingly, none of the creatures pursue him. As Tavros tries to escape up the stairs along with John, Rose, Dave, Jade, Sollux, Karkat, Nepeta, Kanaya, Terezi, Vriska, and Feferi but gets hooked in the spine and dragged to one of the creatures, which saws his legs off whilst the other two give chase.

As they charge towards a room that has steel doors and walls for some reason, Sollux and Feferi both get hooked in the left eye and the right hand respectively. Not terribly good leverage points, but enough to cause them both to slow enough for the creatures to catch up to them and start sawing them to bits. Terezi screams, but keeps going as she runs into the room. John grabs something from a nightstand before he sprints inside too, locking the door behind him.

“Nepeta, where’s Nepeta!?” Jade calls, and Karkat spots her running down a second hallway towards the door as the third creature chases her.

“Come on, run!” Jade shouts, and Nepeta nearly makes it to the door before one of the creature’s hooks catches her in the back and starts to reel her in. It slowly creeps forwards as Jade takes her hand and tries to pull her in, screaming her name.

“Just fucking let her go or we’re all dead!” Vriska shouts amidst the kerfuffle and screaming.

“I lo-” Nepeta manages, and then loses Jade’s grip and gets dragged off, whereupon it begins to saw her to bits. Jade nearly runs out after her, but John slams the door closed and locks it.

“… Jesus.” Sollux says. “That was quick and brutal.”  
“Pretty sure that quick and brutal is how they roll.” Rose says.

“So who does that leave?” Aradia asks, trying to count heads.

“John, Rose, Dave, Jade, Karkat, Kanaya, Terezi, and Vriska.” Equius says. “And Gamzee as well, but not for long. The living tree is currently tearing him to bits.”

“Oh, lovely.” Jade says.

“Question, what the fuck is this room?” Dave asks, breaking the silence.

“Emergency safe room.” John says. “The window glass is bulletproof, but the skylight glass isn’t, for some reason.” he gestures to the skylight at the far end of the room.

“Think they can climb?” Jade asks, and everyone goes silent.

“Anyone got any ideas?” John asks. “Because I’ve got no reception.”

“911?” Dave asks.

“Just said that I’ve got no reception, and I take it no one else has phones on them.” John says.

“Pray to Jesus.” Vriska says.

“Vriska, this is serious.” Terezi says.

“Last resort, you know what I’m saying?” Vriska says.

“We could try a self-sacrifice to get out?” Jade asks.

“I’m not sacrificing anything.” Karkat grumbles.

“Window?” Rose suggests. “Try the roof?”

Kanaya’s the one who actually volunteers to cautiously step onto the roof (which is not slanted at this area) and comes running back soon after, saying that they’re down on the ground waiting for them to come down.

“There’s a minibar on the second floor!” Jade says. “Not far from here.”

“How the fuck would that help?” Karkat asks.

“If we can get it, we could make a molotov cocktail, light them up.” Jade suggests. She pulls out a lighter. John nods.

“Let’s do it.” he says.

It’s Terezi who volunteers to go into the hallway. Once they’re sure that the creatures aren’t lurking around anywhere, she creeps around a corner and vanishes out of sight. They all watch, except for John and Vriska who are busy talking about the stepladder at the wall. Terezi eventually comes back around the corner with two whiskey bottles, one in each hand, and slowly creeps towards the door, giving a little wave. Then, everyone starts screaming. She slowly pauses and turns as one of the crab-things creeps towards her, buzzsaw raised and winding up. She drops both bottles, one of which shatters and stares transfixed at the thing. She kicks the second bottle back towards the door, where Dave scoops it up, and then it brings its buzzsaw down, splitting her skull in half and knocking her corpse to the ground. It barely pauses to cut her up, instead opting to sprint for the door, forcing Rose, Dave, Jade, Kanaya, and Karkat to try and hold it back as it sticks its buzzsaw tail through the door.

“Vriska, skylight!” John shouts, and she nods, setting up the stepladder as everyone screams and the thing tries to push into the room. She grabs a metal pole and starts whacking the glass to try and break it. That’s when the thing shoots one of its hooks forwards right past everyone, and it ropes around her throat and embeds itself in her neck, dragging her off and towards the door. John starts screaming, and everyone is screaming and trying to hold Vriska in as the thing withdraws its buzzsaw to pull her out, sticking its second hook into her. Everyone pulls on her legs, but they lose grip and Rose has to shut the door and lock it while it chews up Vriska on the other side. John sinks to the floor, rubbing his forehead and sighing. They sit there for a while, silent and unsure of what to do.

“Guys, I’ve got it.” he finally says, almost smiling.

“What? What is it?” Jade asks.

He reaches into his pocket and draws a fully loaded revolver. “Six bullets, six of us…” he trails off, letting the implications of his statement settle. Nobody says anything, and Rose even nods and steps forwards to take the gun first, but Karkat breaks the silence.

“Alright, stop!” he shouts, and everyone jolts at the noise. “We are not committing mass murder-suicide. We’re gonna escape!”

“How?” John says, throwing his hands in the air. “We’re doomed, man?”

“Jade, you’ve got that bottle, right?” Karkat asks, and Jade nods. Karkat pops the top off. “Anyone got a rag?” he asks, and Kanaya pulls off one of her socks. He tips the bottle so that it covers the sock in alcohol. “Better not light this yet.” he says. “Alright, here’s the deal.” he looks across everyone else’s faces to make sure they’re paying attention. “We’re going to sneak through this place, use that molotov if necessary, we’re going to get to the cars, and we’ll escape. We’ll come back with cops and choppers and large fucking guns, and those things are gonna pay.” he says. The others are nodding. “Alright, let’s-”

_Crash_

They jump and turn to see the supposedly bulletproof glass window next to them is half smashed with one of the hooks right through it and lying on the floor with the metal wiring leading through the broken window and connected back to one of the crab creatures.

“Oh fuck, they can climb.” Jade says.

“Didn’t you say that window was bulletproof…?” Rose asks. The second hook fires through without warning as the first one retracts and strikes Kanaya in the rib. She winces and then screams as it pulls her forwards towards the damaged window, sawing straight through it with its buzzsaw and shredding Kanaya’s shoulder, before flipping her over as Karkat stares in silent horror along with John while Rose, Jade, and Dave try and pull her back. It slices into her stomach first and she screams for a while before seeming to go limp more from shock than death. It saws off each of her arms and slices off each of her legs, causing the three of them to fall backwards as they lose grip on her feet, and then it cuts her head off and dices her corpse. There’s a sawing sound coupled with the screeching of metal, and then the metal door falls off of its hinges and the second of the three creatures shoves its way into the room.

“Oh, shit!” Karkat yells, already setting the molotov aflame. John raises the gun as the third creature piles in and fires at the second one even as it hooks Rose by the collarbone and drags her to its feet, and it pulls back from shredding her for only a moment as it absorbs the bullet’s effects, before it begins to saw her to death.

 _Five bullets left_ says a voice in Karkat’s head.

As soon as he’s certain that Rose is dead (which is when it cuts her head off), Karkat throws the molotov cocktail and sets half of the room on fire, burning the third creature and scarring the second one badly. The first one clambers into the room, whereupon it saws the legs off of a fleeing Jade and prepares to mince her. John however uses his second bullet to mercy kill her.

 _Four bullets left_ , the voice says again.

The second creature is about to hook Dave, but John shoots it.

_Three bullets left._

He fires again at the first creature before it saws Karkat, given that he’s within range.

_Two left._

John suddenly gets hooked in the shoulder and flops onto his front as the second one begins to pull him backwards so it can slaughter him. He fires one shot at it in panic but doesn’t fire again, immediately realizing the futility of the action. Instead, he tosses the gun to Dave.

_One._

“Dave!” Karkat shouts as he climbs on top of the stepladder, and Dave scoops up the revolver and clambers up the stepladder too, looking around for any way out.

“Oh no no no no…” Dave whispers.

“We’re trapped!” Karkat says as he stares at the two creatures which haven’t hooked them yet for some reason. “What do we do, what do we do!?” he asks. Dave flicks open the revolver and notices that there’s only one bullet. He looks at Karkat.

“There’s not enough for both of us.” Dave says. Karkat realizes he’s crying, and Dave is crying too. “I’m sorry I always… threw you under the bus.” Dave says.

“I’m sorry I doubted you, Dave.” Karkat says.

“But even though I hurt you, you always took the pain for me.” Dave says. “So I’m going to pay you back all at once.”

“What are you talking about?” Karkat sniffles as Dave presses the gun into his hands.

“The last bullet is for you.” Dave says, and then steps back and turns to face the creatures, walking to his doom with his head held high. Karkat screams his name, and Dave screams as he is shredded. Karkat’s vision is practically completely blurred right now, tears filling his eyes and spilling out of them. He takes aim at both of the creatures, which hiss and growl at him, slowly advancing and ready to kill him too. He then presses the gun to his chin and places his shaky finger on the trigger. He wills himself to pull the trigger. So close… so easy… so painless. Not like Dave’s death. Dave. He’d want Karkat to do everything to survive. Right?

Karkat brings the gun down from his head and then looks up. The skylight. He takes aim with the gun. _This is going to sting_ , he thinks. He fires, and shatters the glass.

_Zero._

He closes his eyes as glass falls all around him, slashing him, but keeps his eyes closed even when he scrambles upwards to try and climb out the skylight but feels another entity take control of his mind and he falls down, down, down. When he opens his eyes, he is Bloodroot, no longer Karkat. Bloodroot snarls. He’s in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Eight down, eight to go.

All SCP-250 instances are lured back into containment with crab food. SCP-4951 is forced back into the containment with the use of several flamethrowers. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. The damage to the cliff is cleaned up and swept away. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“I missed the whole thing.” Dave admits as he and Karkat watch the playback.

“Nothing wrong with that.” Karkat says. “Besides, seeing you die, or seeing yourself die from your perspective, can be a little unnerving. Distressing even.”

“Huh.” Dave says. “Can you believe that we’re halfway?”

“Really?” Karkat asks. “God. Halfway through this mess.”

**Significant Entity:** The Scarlet Grove

 **Entity Threat Level:** 3 / Keneq / Warning

 **Entity Capture:** Successful

 **Avoided Incidents:** The Collective, The Choice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending is a reference to a sketch by the youtube channel RocketJump. They make great stuff, even if they've been on hiatus for a while. Check them out.  
> Also, crabs with buzzsaws for tails!


	15. 9 - Hell's Angels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> E ri  
> dan'
> 
> s
> 
> oPeraT  
> i  
> on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [File Corrupted]

SPRING 2021

“I wonder where he is.” Eridan says as he stares out across the grassy fields beyond his house. “And I wonder how long it will be until they find his body.”

“They’ll find your foster brother, Eridan.” Feferi says as she steps onto the deck next to him.

“He’s probably not going to be alive though.” Eridan says. “And the worst bit of all this is, I don’t care.” he shrugs.

“Don’t say that, Eridan.” Feferi says.

“But I don’t care.” Eridan says. “I really don’t. I never liked Cronus. You do know that he flirted with me, right?”

“Wow, really?” Feferi says.

“The nerve.” Eridan says. “I don’t think he ever gave a shit about me, and frankly I never gave a shit about him either.”

“So what are you going to do whenever they find him from wherever he’s disappeared to?” Feferi asks, rather hesitantly.

“Nothing.” Eridan says with complete confidence. Then, he turns and walks off.

1 YEAR LATER, SPRING 2022

MAINE

Rose drives while Kanaya rides shotgun and Eridan and Feferi sit in the backseat. Eridan is currently lost in his own thoughts and he doesn’t even realize that they’ve arrived when they do. He steps out of the car and stares up at the massive cabin which is more like a mansion than a cabin given its size. Everyone else starts talking, but Eridan pays little attention to them. He and Feferi head upstairs to their room, which has an ovular window and two beds.

“This is nice.” she says. “You can see the trees and everything.”

“Yeah,” Eridan says. “I guess it is quite nice.”

“Too bad there isn’t a lake.” Feferi says.

“Oh well.” Eridan says. “I guess we’ll just have to make do.”

The day passes by in a bit of a blur. Feferi and Eridan go into the forest and wander while talking. Talking is one of their strengths after all. They never seem to run out of things to talk about. That is half the reason that they even became friends in the first place, and then from there, romantic partners. They’re discussing the biology of aquatic life whilst walking down some old forgotten trail in the woods. The wind whistles through the trees, and Eridan freezes.

“Eridan?” Feferi asks. “You alright?”

“Sorry, I just…” Eridan says. “It feels like something’s missing.”

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Don’t worry about it.” Eridan says, forcing a smile.

BENEATH

“John still isn’t back?” Rose asks.

“He briefly showed up a short time ago.” Jade says.

“Really? When?” Rose asks.

“Yeah, he just told me he had to go across the World Tree again.” Jade says, shrugging. “Check something with his future self or whatever. He should be back soon.”

“Alright. Shall we get this train moving?” Rose asks.

“What train?” Dave wonders aloud.

“You know what I mean, Dave.” Rose says. She goes over to the mic. “The date is March 6th, 2022. Commencing capture nine.”

Commencing Operation “Violet Saint”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-001 - The Seraph

SCP-3677 - The Angels of Yahweh

ABOVE

Eridan opens his eyes. It’s about three in the morning. Standing up and looking out the window, he can see several shining figures standing in the clearing in front of the mansion. They’re humanoid with a pair of wings each and are shining with golden light. They seem to be crowding around a taller humanoid figure with four wings instead of two that is aflame with golden fire. It carries a sword of some kind, and it turns up to face Eridan, looking him in the eyes with its blank face. The others turn and do the same.

“What the fuck…?” Eridan whispers.

BENEATH

John Egbert suddenly materializes out of thin air in a flash of blue light and a gust of wind in the technicians’ control room. “Everyone hold still, nobody move.” he says, and then gulps as he walks up to the control panel. He holds up his hands, and blue energy flows from them with a zap. “Alright, let’s see if this tells us what you are.” he says, smiling.

“John, what the hell is going on?” Dave asks.

“Don’t move Dave, not unless you want to get shocked.” John responds. Surprisingly, Dave listens to him. There’s something about the tone of his voice. The tension in the room builds, pressure focusing on John, and he grits his teeth from the effort. “Hold tight… this is gonna sting.” John says. He thrusts his hands forward and there’s a flash of light and

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


[REMAINING DATA FILE CORRUPTED]

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


One (1) Directive Saved

  
  
  


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**Significant Entity:** The Violet Saint

**Entity Threat Level:** 3 / Keneq / Warning

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** The Eden-Uriel Tangent, Everything at Once

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> John's testing the narrative, and whatever it was corrupted the chapter.  
> Whoops.  
> The real reason why I corrupted this file and not any of the other ones is because it would basically be a bunch of angels setting people on fire for about a thousand words.


	16. 10 - The Dark Carnival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gamzee's Operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny that the farther into these operations we get, the less important the operations themselves seem and the focus shifts more to the control rooms and what's going on with them.

SPRING 2021

Tavros does not consider himself very good at comforting, but here he is trying to comfort Gamzee thanks to Kurloz’s overdose killing him.

“So, uh, how are you feeling man?” Tavros asks.

“Honestly, I don’t motherfucking know what I’m feeling.” Gamzee says. “Scared.”

“Uh, why scared?” Tavros asks. “You never get scared, it’s like… your thing.”

“Yeah, I guess not.” Gamzee says. “But I feel scared because now I could motherfucking overdose on my meds too. And then we’d both be dead.”

“Gamzee, don’t say that.” Tavros says.

“I’m afraid, man.” Gamzee says.

“Well you, uh, don’t have to be.” Tavros says. He wraps his arms around Gamzee in a hug. Surprisingly, Gamzee leans into it. “You’ll make it through this.”

“Yeah.” Gamzee says. “I motherfucking hope so.”

1 YEAR LATER, SPRING 2022

MAINE

John drives with Vriska riding shotgun while Gamzee and Tavros sit in the back. The last year has been a bit of a ride for the two of them, but they’ve made it through. Tavros has his head on Gamzee’s shoulder as he stares out the window. The car stops.

“Here we are.” John says as he and Vriska step out. Gamzee and Tavros follow and stare up at the massive cabin that is more akin to a mansion given its size.

“Wow, that’s… big.” Tavros says.

“Motherfucking big.” Gamzee says.

They head upstairs to their room while John chats with everyone. Their room has a window at the end of the room with lavender flowers on the sill.

“This place is pretty.” Tavros says.

“You motherfucking bet it is.” Gamzee says.

While Tavros draws in the living room, Gamzee ends up listening to some music on his phone for a little while before he passes the time doing one of the things he does best; getting high. Tavros joins him after a little while and they drift off into strange mental states together. They do that for a while and then watch viral youtube videos and then chat for the rest of the afternoon about just about anything.

BENEATH

“Look, whatever it is clearly has enough sense in its head to fight back.” a female voice from inside says as Rose approaches the control room door. “So it’s alive. Just… let me handle this one myself, alright John?” opening it, she sees a troll version of Terezi wearing a green coat with a red dragon coat slung over her back.

“Oh. Who are you?” Rose asks.

“Well, Terezi obviously.” the troll says. “The person who keeps this one,” she gestures to John “doing whatever he’s supposed to do, whatever that may be.” she flicks him on the shoulder and he flinches. “He’s still skittish, but he’ll lose that.”

“I will?” he asks.

“You will. We’ll get there when we get there kid.” Terezi says. “Just let me handle whatever it is. It’s way beyond your current power level, but I’m a different story. I can take it. You just stay here and keep doing what you’re doing and let me handle it.”

“Right.” John says, nodding.

“Ciao.” she says, twirling her finger in the air in front of her. A red circle of energy appears in front of her, the large gap in the middle opening to a forest. She steps through it and it closes behind her. John nods once more and rubs his hands together.

“John,” Rose says, smiling a little, “Who exactly are you?”

“I, uh, don’t know.” John says. “Apparently I haven’t gotten there yet.”

“Alright.” Rose says, nodding as she goes over to the mic. “The date is April 13th, 2022. Commencing capture 10.”

“Can’t believe this is really our tenth.” Dave says.

“Well, it is.” Rose says.

Commencing Operation “Purple Laughter”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-547 - The King of the Violet Abyss

SCP-3581 - Super Clowns™

ABOVE

Gamzee wakes up and notices that it’s three in the morning, judging by the clock on the wall. Tavros is still asleep in the bed across from him. He stands up, rubs his head and stares out the window. There are several figures beneath his window staring up at him. They’re all clowns. Clowns with knives. Except of course, for one of them which looks more like a human with axe blades growing out of his head. He’s dressed in red robes and carrying… something. It’s hard to tell, but it looks like somebody tried to combine an axe, a sword, a mace, a spear, and a few other things tossed in there for good measure.

“What the motherfuck?” Gamzee wonders aloud. One by one, the clowns stop looking at him and start walking off towards the front door. He walks downstairs and goes up to the front door where their faces are all pressed against the window. He considers doing something about them but elects to wake everyone else first. As he goes upstairs, he hears clanging, laughter, and the door opening. He quickens his pace. As soon as he reaches the upstairs hallway, he starts knocking on everyone’s doors.

“Why the fuck did you wake us all up at three in the fucking morning?” Vriska asks harshly.

“There are motherfucking clowns outside.” Gamzee says.

“Clowns?” Karkat asks. “The fuck are you on about?”

“See?” Gamzee asks, gesturing down the stairs where one of the clowns is standing, smiling up at them as it plays with its knife.

“What the shit.” Dave says.

“Why is a clown with a knife at the bottom of the stairs?” Sollux asks.

“Correction; why are several clowns with knives at the bottom of the stairs?” John asks as several move clowns with knives join the first one. There are five of them.

“This is creepy.” Jade says.

The first of the clowns steps onto the stairs. Everyone steps back. It walks faster, twirling its knife in its fingers. Everyone moves back. It laughs at them and then charges at them, waving its knife. It shanks Sollux in the stomach, and Terezi screams his name as he goes down to his feet and it cuts his throat. Everyone starts running, and the rest of the clowns sprint after them. They scatter through the cabin, and the clowns split up to go after them. Gamzee ends up with Tavros and Equius, and they shut the door to one of the rooms, barricading it with chairs. Tavros sinks to the floor, muttering something. While Equius continues to stack furniture against the door, Gamzee goes over to Tavros.

“What the fuck is going on?” Tavros whispers. “What the fuck?”

“We’re going to motherfucking get out of this.” Gamzee says. “Alright man? Just hold on.”

“Gamzee, I cannot hold the door.” Equius hisses out as the clown on the other side laughs and pounds on the door with supernatural strength.

“We gotta get out.” Tavros says, and Gamzee looks around for a way out.

“Window.” he says, pointing to the window. He goes over and opens it, gesturing for Tavros to exit. Tavros climbs out and then Gamzee climbs out. “Equius, come on!” Equius seems to debate as to whether he should man the failing barricade or try and escape, soon opting for the latter option. However, shortly after he starts for the window, the clown breaks through and shanks him in the back several times, killing him. It steps out of the window onto the roof where Gamzee instinctively steps in front of Tavros.

“You aren’t going to motherfucking touch him.” he snarls.

The clown laughs, charges forwards, and shanks Gamzee between the ribs. However, it pushes both of them backwards and to the side, causing them to fall off of the roof. It stays up there and laughs at them as they fall to the ground. Tavros lands on his spine and Gamzee lands on his arm. The clown laughs at them and ducks back inside the window.

“Gamzee… I can’t feel my legs.” Tavros says, and Gamzee goes cold. Ignoring the throbbing ache in his arm, he stands and helps Tavros up.

“Come on man.” Gamzee says, helping his boyfriend up. “We gotta get out of here.” he half-carries him towards the woods and he’s almost in them when he hears Tavros scream. He turns and sees the knife sticking out of his back, hears the laughter. He sees Tavros’ breathing stop, sees him go limp. He fights every instinct to help Tavros up and keep going, but he knows that he’s dead and blinks his tears away, running off into the woods.

At some point while running with a hole still in his chest he spots a few of the others and runs over to them. John, Karkat, Kanaya, Vriska, and Eridan are all that’s left. Eridan has a nasty wound on his shoulder and it looks like he’d been grabbed by chains. Kanaya has a chainsaw for some reason.

“Where are the others?” Gamzee asks.

“Christ man, you look like shit.” Karkat says.

“Where are the others?” Gamzee repeats.

“Where do you think?” Kanaya mournfully says. Gamzee nods.

“So you lost Tavros?” John asks.

“Weenie Tavros couldn’t handle himself, huh?” Vriska asks with a smirk. Gamzee tenses.

“Vriska!” John scolds.

Gamzee turns and snarls at her, not even realizing that he’s choking her. “Don’t…” he says. “You…” he tightens his grip. “Ever.” he snarls. “Motherfucking.” she gasps for breath. “Say his name.” he drops her, turns away, and clutches his bleeding chest. Surprisingly, nobody says anything to Gamzee about what he just did. If they do, he doesn’t hear because he’s feeling rather odd. Like he’s not the only one in his head. There’s a flash of light, and suddenly Clown is in Gamzee’s body. He slowly turns to face the five survivors. He cracks his neck.

“Gamzee, are you alright…?” Karkat asks.

“Why do you ask?” Clown says.

“Your eyes are fucking glowing.” Eridan says.

“Are they now?” Clown says, and raises his finger and points at Vriska, and she screams as she is enveloped in purple light and then burned away into nothingness.

“Holy fuck!” Karkat shouts and everyone scrambles back.

“Guess I can do that.” Clown says. He does the same to John and then to Eridan. Kanaya raises her chainsaw and charges at him, but he blasts her skull open. Karkat is all that’s left, and he curls up in a ball and lets Clown rip him away with a purple energy burst. But Clown blinks for only a second as he feels a dart enter his neck and wakes in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Ten down, six to go.

SCP-547 is lured back with an occult ritual. The five instances of SCP-3581 are terminated. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

Tavros and Gamzee watch the cleanup.

“Can’t believe that 547 barely did anything.” Tavros says.

“Oh well, I suppose that’s for the best.” Gamzee says. “It can be a… hassle.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Tavros says. “Getting that thing back. Tricky.”

**Significant Entity:** The Purple Laughter

 **Entity Threat Level:** 4 / Ekhi / Danger

 **Entity Capture:** Successful

 **Avoided Incidents:** A King Drenched in Blood, Round and Round

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was quick. Ish.  
> I wonder who that was with John. Clearly the people of this world (Sierra-Nevada-32) know about trolls (courtesy of other universes visiting I suppose), but they don't know who this is.  
> So many questions!


	17. 11 - It's a Beautiful Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sollux's Operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things get pear-shaped quickly.

SUMMER 2021

Mituna Captor had an aneurysm and died. Sollux is still in the hospital while his foster parents grieve. He sees Terezi coming over and shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

“Hey Sol.” she says as she sits down next to him.

“Rezi I would appreciate it if you could just leave me alone.” Sollux says.

“Nah.” Terezi says. “You’re hurt inside, even if you don’t want to believe it.”

“No I’m not.” Sollux says.

“Yes you are.” Terezi says. “I can see it in your eyes.”

Sollux pauses for a moment. “Yes, fine. I’m sad. But I don’t know how to articulate that sadness.” he admits, shrugging.

“Well, I’ll be here for you.” Terezi says, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Thank you.” Sollux says.

1 YEAR LATER, SUMMER 2022

MAINE

Dave drives with Karkat sitting next to him while Sollux and Terezi sit in the backseat. They drive up into the mountains and Sollux stares at his phone. When the car stops, it takes Terezi shaking him to snap him out of his stupor. He steps out and stares at the massive cabin. John starts speaking but Sollux focuses on his phone. Terezi leads him inside and up the stairs to their room, which has a pair of square windows and two beds.

“What do you want to do?” Terezi asks. “Because I take it you feel like being on your phone all day.” Sollux looks at her and puts his stuff on his bed.

“Yes.” he says. “Something’s trending on Reddit, and I’ve got to find out what.”

“Suit yourself.” Terezi says. “I’m going to go hang with Vriska.”

“Queen bitch herself.” Sollux says.

“Yes, well she’s less of a bitch when I’m around.” Terezi says. Terezi turns and walks off, leaving Sollux to leech off the cabin’s free wifi.

BENEATH

“What are you all partying about?” Rose asks when she comes in, seeing everyone crowding around Sollux and asking questions.

“I have a kid now, and it’s the coolest.” Sollux says.

“Wow. Congratulations.” Rose says with surprising sincerity. “Got a name?”

“Well Amy and I haven’t decided on anything yet, but…” Sollux says, “I’m thinking… Joel.”

“Nice name.” Aradia says.

“Commentary on kids aside,” Rose says as she puts a hand on Kanaya’s shoulder, causing her to exchange a look with Rose given the implications, “Shall we get started?”

“Let’s do this!” Sollux cheers. “Sorry, just feeling… hyped up.”

“I don’t blame you.” Rose says, and then goes to the control board. “The date is June 14th, 2022.” Rose says into the mic. “This is our eleventh capture.”

Commencing Operation “Golden Skull”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-524 - The Straw Men of Potter’s Field

SCP-2880 - Jack of Lanterns

ABOVE

Sollux wakes up at three in the morning. Terezi is still asleep. He gets his phone and opens it up, but he has no wifi anymore and can’t access the network. So, he decides to head downstairs to the kitchen and get himself a glass of water. As soon as he starts drinking, he pauses and looks outside. There are scarecrow-looking figures shambling towards the house holding various farm tools, led by one wearing a flaming pumpkin head with a scythe.

“What the fu-” he starts to say and then jumps when he hears a window shattering and drops the glass he’s holding, causing it to smash on the ground. The jack-o-lantern person crashes in the kitchen window with the scythe. Sollux steps backwards and then runs upstairs, nearly tripping on his way up. He darts into his room and shakes Terezi awake. “Rezi. Wake up.” he hisses out.

“Sollux, it’s three in the morning.” Terezi says. “Why have you woken me at this ungodly hour?”

“There’s something-” Sollux’s voice is cut off by a window crashing inwards.

“What was that?” Terezi asks, and they peek out into the dark hallway as the scarecrow people start to shamble towards the stairs at a snail’s pace. Sollux flinches, and then goes silent. “Sollux?” she asks, shaking him. “Sollux! Fuck.”

Terezi starts waking everyone else up and they all stare at the scarecrow people as well as the one jack-o-lantern head scarecrow. “The fuck?” John wonders as the scarecrows start up the stairs slowly and methodically.

“Hey, what’s up with Sollux?” Karkat wonders aloud.

“I don’t know, he froze on the spot.” Terezi says.

Everyone starts bickering. At that moment, the jack-o-lantern scarecrow suddenly breathes fire and sets the scarecrows alight. This seems to make them faster, as they suddenly start to increase in speed. “Oh, fuck.” Eridan says.

“Run!” Jade shouts, and everyone panics and scatters, except for Sollux, who is still frozen in place, and Terezi, who is trying to move him as the scarecrows move towards her. He suddenly twitches, sees the oncoming threat, pauses, and then blasts energy from his eyes and disintegrates the first scarecrow, causing the other ones to pause.

“Oh fuck.” Rose says.

“I think Bright decided to jump the gun.” Sollux says. Rose grabs the mic.

“Nepeta, Tavros, we have a code red.” she hisses. “Bright just jumped in straight off.” she whirls around to face Dave, who’s busy on his walkie talkie. “Dave, I hope you got someone on security with them.” he nods.

“I sent Terezi and her main team.” Dave says.

“Fuck, this is bad.” Rose says, running her hands through her hair.

“What the…” Terezi says, and doesn’t get any farther because Sollux breaks her neck. Then Bright in Sollux’s body cracks his neck twice and starts glowing with energy, walking down the hall in silent pursuit of the fourteen remaining teens.

He finds Dave and Karkat first and turns them into black outlines on the wall in an instant. The next one he finds is Gamzee on the ground with his brains pulped all over the floor by a shovel while the scarecrow wielding it attacks a closet that Tavros is hiding in. He blasts the scarecrow and Tavros away in one go.

“I’ve missed this.” he mutters.

He’s just finished off Rose and Kanaya when he feels his powers begin to fade out, so he starts to run faster, stumbling across Aradia and Equius’ disemboweled corpses. Shortly after that, he feels his powers fade so he steals the gun from the living room and avoids the soldiers running in along the way. He blows Vriska’s head off with it and shoots John once in each lung, running deeper into the house with three bullets left in his stolen revolver. He breaks Eridan’s neck and chokes Feferi, leaving Jade and Nepeta as the only ones left. Then the soldiers come and fire at him. He shoots back and gets one of them in the shoulder and another in the leg, but they are fairly non-lethal and non-crippling injuries and suddenly he’s got no bullets. He hisses when the soldiers surround him.

“You humans.” Bright snarls. “So high and mighty. We’re going to end you.”

It’s Terezi who slams him in the side of the head with her gun and knocks him out.

“Rose, we’ve still got Jade and Nepeta left and in our custody, what should we do?” Terezi asks over her comms.

Rose sighs. “You know what to do.” she says.

Gunfire echoes through the walkie-talkie and on screen, although the screams seem to last longer than that. “Well that’s over with.” Rose says. “Thank goodness.” Everyone breathes a sigh of relief.

Then the golden phone on the wall rings.

Everyone flinches and/or goes silent. Rose looks across everyone’s faces and slowly walks over to the phone and picks it up. “Hello?” she asks, and pauses. “Director.” she says. She listens to what the voice on the other end says and then turns to John. “It’s for you.”

“Oh god.” John whispers, his happy demeanor vanishing, replaced by something akin to fear. He slowly walks over and takes the phone. “Yes, Director?” he asks. There are various pauses between his sentences. “Yes. Of course. Yeah.” he pauses. “You’re not seriously asking me to-” he gets cut off and pales. “Understood.” he finally says, hanging up the phone. He turns to the others, white as a sheet. His breathing gets heavy. “Okay.” he says, and pauses. “I…” he says. “I have to go.” he says, and then turns, slowly walking off and then fast walking around the corner and out the room until he’s running up the stairs and into the facility, his destination unknown. Everyone else shares confused looks.

“What the hell was all that about?” Dave asks.

“None of our business.” Rose says.

An hour later, Bright wakes up, still in a human body. He’s in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Eleven down, five to go.

The instances of SCP-524 are torched with anomalous fire. SCP-2880 is secured with an occult ritual of some sort. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“That was close.” Terezi says as she and Sollux watch the cleanup.

“Yes, we could’ve had quite the problem there.” Sollux says. “Thank god we used that reality anchor when we did.”

“On a lighter note, do you and Amy know what you’re calling your kid?” Terezi asks.

“I was thinking Joel, but that’s inconclusive.” Sollux says, shrugging.

“Craig.” Terezi says.

“Craig?” Sollux asks.

“I don’t know, just a suggestion.” Terezi shrugs. Sollux smirks.

“Craig.” he says. “I like that.”

**Significant Entity:** The Golden Skull

 **Entity Threat Level:** 4 / Ekhi / Danger

 **Entity Capture:** Successful

 **Avoided Incidents:** The Burning Two, A God Blind to Your Sins

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sollux has a kid!  
> And Rose wants kids.  
> That was a close call, that whole incident.  
> Yes, Jade and Nepeta were just executed right there.  
> John is kind of afraid of the Director.


	18. 12 - Blood of the Vein

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya's Operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ERROR]  
> Comment Failed to Load.
> 
> Jokes aside, we're nearing the end of this gore-soaked mess.

SUMMER 2021

Rose rocks Kanaya back and forth, running her hand through the other girl’s hair. Kanaya’s sister Porrim was just killed in an explosion caused by a gas leak.

“You don’t have to say anything.” Rose says. “We can just be here, in this moment.”

“Thank you Rose.” Kanaya whispers.

So, Kanaya doesn’t say anything. She simply processes her thoughts internally and lets Rose silently hold her.

1 YEAR LATER, SUMMER 2022

MAINE

Rose drives while Kanaya rides shotgun and Eridan and Feferi sit in the backseat. Kanaya stares out at the trees as they drive into the mountains towards John’s Crockercorp cabin. When the car comes to a stop, Kanaya stares at it in awe. It’s less of a cabin and more of a mansion, given its size.

“Wow, that’s big.” Kanaya says.

“Yes, I suppose it is.” Rose says.

“I seriously can’t believe that your family owns this.” Karkat says.

“Well, Crockercorp has a lot of money.” John says, shrugging. “Although I suppose I’ve always wondered why they built this and why they made it so big.”

“They’re a big corporation and they like making things?” Dave posits, shrugging.

“Who knows.” John says, shrugging.

As everyone pours into the house, Rose and Kanaya head upstairs to their room, which has a diamond shaped window and a pair of beds.

“This is nice.” Kanaya says as she places her stuff at the end of the bed. Rose does the same and pulls out a book and begins reading. Kanaya reads a book of her own and they get lost in their own worlds of fiction.

BENEATH

“John’s gone again.” Rose points out.

“He said he’d be back soon.” Jade says. “But whatever the Director told him must have scared the shit out of him.”

“Yeah, I’d say so given how he ran out like that.” Dave said. “Hope he’s alright.”

“That man is not what he seems, I gotta say.” Aradia says.

“Yeah, who knows what his deal is.” Rose says.

“By the way, I settled on a name and I went with Craig.” Sollux says.

“That’s a nice name.” Rose says.

“Did Terezi recommend that one?” Equius asks.

“Oh shove off with it.” Sollux says, and Equius genuinely smirks. “I had a thing with her for four months way back when. Just because all our clones got together doesn’t mean that I still fancy her, goodness, it was an at the time thing.”

“Yeah, but she might still fancy you mate.” Dave says, and Sollux snorts.

“Knowing her, I would not be surprised.” Sollux says.

“Alright, let’s do this.” Rose says, turning on the mic. “The date is July 17th. Commencing our twelfth capture.”

Commencing Operation “Jade Beast”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-254 - Vampire (s), plural this time

SCP-4479 - The Silent Bride

ABOVE

Kanaya opens her eyes and notes that it’s three in the morning. Rose is asleep in the bed across from her. She stands up and rubs her eyes. She feels odd, and she feels compelled to take a walk. Going downstairs and stepping into the living room, she pauses at the front door. What is she doing? Where is she going? But she pushes the thoughts aside. She opens the door and steps outside. She starts walking out, ignoring the semi-cold night air and stepping into the forest and walking between the trees. She stops again. What is she doing?

“What is she doing?” Dave wonders aloud.

“Equius, can you try and turn her back?” Rose asks. Equius nods, and flicks a switch.

Kanaya feels a strange tug in her head to go back, but she ignores it and keeps moving forwards into the woods. The tug happens a few more times, but she keeps moving, stopping only when she sees the grey skinned human in a ragged suit a couple yards ahead of her. It hisses, and its eyes glow. She steps back as it steps towards her, baring its fangs.

“What the…” she whispers, and then looks around and sees three more of the figures coming in from her sides. She considers what to do for a moment and then elects to run for her life, sprinting back to the cabin. She notices that the front door is open, which it shouldn’t be since she closed it, and as she runs in she hears the screaming. She runs in and sees an odd sight. A brunette woman in a bloody wedding gown has a knife in one hand and is holding Dave by the throat in the other, and he’s screaming his head off. She effortlessly shoves him up against the wall and then slowly pushes the knife into his chest. His screams turn to gurgles and then to silence as he dies. She retracts the knife and slowly turns to face Kanaya. She looks behind her and sees that the four grey skinned humans are walking towards the cabin. The woman raises the knife and advances towards Kanaya, so she darts forwards and sprints up the stairs.

Karkat is standing at the top of the stairs and staring at Dave’s corpse in silent horror. Everyone else is crowded around in the hallway, and Rose embraces Kanaya. There’s a crash as a window breaks open and everyone turns to see one of the ragged-suited grey-skinned humans in one of the rooms. It rushes forwards and slams into Gamzee, stabbing its fangs into his neck. He shouts something as he goes down with it on top of him and Tavros panics and tries to pry it off of him but it keeps drinking his blood until he’s gone pale and is seemingly dead. It slowly stands, and everyone backs up but is now stuck between a woman with a knife and a vampire. The vampire shoots forwards and bites Tavros next, and everyone else scatters around him as the knife-woman comes at them, shanking Aradia from behind and pulling her down to cut her throat. Everyone else scatters and Kanaya takes her girlfriend’s hand as they run, leaving Aradia and Tavros to their fates.

Rose and Kanaya hide in a storage room for what feels like hours, hands clasped together, both too afraid to even say a single word. They hear gunshots and hear shouting and more hissing and screaming. But they don’t budge. They sit and hide. And then they hear footsteps and Feferi runs inside, tailed by Nepeta.

“Guys, come on!” Nepeta hisses. “We’re getting out of here!”

“Come on Rose.” Kanaya whispers, and leads her girlfriend along.

The four of them hurry through the house, heading downstairs.

“Where are the others?” Rose asks.

“We don’t know who else made it.” Feferi says.

They exit around the back of the house and are about to head for the cars but stop when they see two of the vampires sucking the blood from Vriska right next to the vehicles. As soon as they’re finished feeding, they look over to see the four survivors. They hiss and start moving towards them. Rose, Nepeta, Kanaya, and Feferi take that as their cue to run. They keep running for what seems like hours. Kanaya’s lungs hurt. She doesn’t think she can keep going. And that’s when the group stumbles upon Sollux.

He’s staring at a hole in the ground next to an old cabin with faded gravestones with an odd expression on his face. He turns to them.

“There’s an elevator in the ground.” he says.

“Oh, fuck me.” Rose says.

“Shit.” Sollux says. “How did he find that? I thought the chems were up, couldn’t let them past. Jade, did you mess something up?”   
“They should be working fine!” Jade says. “And you put double doses at the start anyway!”

“Then how the hell did they get down there?” Kanaya asks, half snarling.

“What?” Kanaya asks.

“Look Kanaya, see?” Sollux asks, stepping aside. She peers into the hole in the ground. There’s a clean glass cube elevator-thing past the dirt.

“Think we should go in?” Kanaya asks.

“We got company!” Nepeta shouts, and Feferi screams as one of the vampires tackles her. Nepeta fires, but it doesn’t kill the vampire, which sucks Feferi dry. Sollux trips backwards and falls into the elevator, breaking his neck. As a second vampire comes from behind Kanaya, she runs, grabs Rose’s hand, and sprints off. Nepeta tries to run after them but gets her blood sucked out too. Rose and Kanaya keep running, hoping for some way out, anything. At some point, Kanaya stops dead and freezes on the spot. She blinks, and then she’s Kanaya no longer, only Vampire. The god cracks her now mortal neck and sighs.

“Stuck mortal. How about that.” she says, and then waves her hand and dices Rose into meat. She feels the tranquilizer dart enter her neck, feels its knockout effects spread. She closes her eyes as she succumbs to its effects and opens them in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Twelve down, four to go.

All four members of SCP-542 are lured back into containment with several D-Class personnel. SCP-4479 is lured back into containment by Officer Leijon. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“Kanaya,” Rose says as they watch the cleanup, “Have you ever thought about kids?”

“Where is this coming from, Rose?” Kanaya asks.

“You know where this is coming from Kanaya.” Rose repeats.

“Sollux.” Kanaya says, nodding. “I have thought about kids. And I have considered it.”

“Have you ever wanted any?” Rose asks.

“I suppose so.” Kanaya says, and Rose smiles. “But when all this is over.”

“Right.” Rose says. “So that’s a yes.”

“Yes Rose.” Kanaya says. “That is a yes.”

Rose smiles and hugs her wife close. They go silent as cleanup finishes.

**Significant Entity:** The Jade Beast

**Entity Threat Level:** 4 / Ekhi / Danger

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** Manning the Gates of Hell, The Man Who Can Never Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only four to go. You're almost out of this, Sierra-Nevada-32.  
> John's going to be gone for a little while again.  
> Rose and Kanaya want kids. At least somebody's happy, even if those somebodies are apathetic technically child-murdering psychpaths.


	19. 13 - Murder of Crows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave's Operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is a pun.  
> Almost out of this.

AUTUMN 2021

Dave is crying, and Karkat doesn’t know what to do. A few hours ago, Dave’s foster brother Dirk was murdered by his own guardian who had been abusing Dave and Dirk for years. Thankfully, his foster parent has been locked up as a result, but Karkat isn’t entirely sure how to handle Dave’s dam of emotions that has finally broken ever since Karkat’s foster parents took him in. So, he does the only thing he can do and wraps his arms around Dave and hugs him close. Dave doesn’t say anything, he’s stopped rambling altogether. But Karkat knows he's grateful, especially judging by the way his body language has relaxed.

“I’m right here for you Dave.” Karkat whispers.

“Thank you Karkat.” Dave sobs out, and Karkat hugs him closer.

1 YEAR LATER, AUTUMN 2022

MAINE

Karkat drives up into the mountains with Dave riding shotgun while Sollux and Terezi sit in the backseat chatting about the latest internet trend or whatever. Dave’s not really paying attention to them, he’s paying attention to Karkat. Not that Karkat should be able to tell that he’s looking at him through his shades. They arrive at the cabin which is more like a mansion and he steps out of the car to stare up at it.

“I seriously can’t believe your family owns this, John.” Karkat says.

“Family  _ business _ .” John corrects, and Karkat rolls his eyes. “Crockercorp. They got lots of money.” he says. He unlocks the front door and heads inside, Karkat following him and Dave following him. Dave follows Karkat up the stairs into their room, which has two beds and a square window on the far wall. Dave flops down on his bed.

“This place is actually pretty decent.” Dave says deadpan.

“For once, I might actually say you’re right.” Karkat says.

“Really?” Dave asks.

“Yes, really.” Karkat says.

Dave pulls up his phone and starts listening to some music through his earbuds while Karkat reads some romance novel on the bed across from him.

BENEATH

Rose walks into the control room and notes that John is still gone. Everyone else is lingering around, seemingly waiting. “Were you all waiting on me?” she asks.

“No, we are simply a little surprised.” Equius says.

“John showed up again.” Jade says. “Only for like a minute, I might add.”

“What’d he say?” Rose asks.

“Just talked about how Stormy was getting a bit rough so he was gonna check it out.” Dave says. “Apparently they’re trying to play smarter now, they know we’re picking them off.”

“Great.” Rose says. “So we better hurry this along then.” she goes to the mic. “The date is September 1st. Commencing Capture 13.”

“Better be careful, 13 is an unlucky number.” Dave says.

“Normally I would disagree with you, but…” Rose says. “With everything that’s gone wrong, I can’t say I disagree now.” she pauses. “Alright, let’s do this.”

Commencing Operation “Orange Crow”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-758 - The Great Sorcerer Jerry

SCP-2555 - Birds of Darkness

ABOVE

Dave opens his eyes at three in the morning. At least, if the clock on the wall is any indication. There’s a crow on the windowsill. Well, on the outside, but still. It has red eyes. Dave stares at it for a moment before a second crow with similar features joins it. Then there are three of them. Then four. Then five. Then six. All packed onto the windowsill next to each other, staring at him. He stands up and stares at them and they stare back. He feels a strange craving for water.

_ Plink _

One of the crows just tapped its beak against the glass. It does it again. And then a few more times. Dave ignores it, turning and heading downstairs. The kitchen is dark, but he flicks on the light and fills a glass with water, drinking it in silence. When he goes back upstairs, his window is smashed open and the crows are everywhere. One is still at the windowsill but is inside now. Two are on his bed, two are on the floor. And one is on Karkat’s bed. Karkat is still peacefully sleeping but Dave doesn’t feel like he’s safe. Something about these crows feels… deadly. How did they break glass with their beaks? He squints. Their beaks glint in the light. Oh.  _ Oh. _

They have metal beaks.

“What the fuck?” he mutters. He slowly goes over to Karkat and shakes him awake. “Hey Karks, wake up.” Karkat grumbles.

“Why the fuck did you wake me up at four in the morning?” Karkat asks.

“Three in the morning.” Dave corrects/

“Whatever.” Karkat says. “I-” he cuts himself off as he sees all the crows. “Um, what?”

“I don’t know either man.” Dave says. “Might wanna come over here.”

Karkat slowly gets up from his bed and starts walking towards Dave slowly, and one of them pecks him on the ankle. He hisses and jumps back. The six of them are staring at the two of them. Dave goes to open the door and they suddenly fly at them without warning, pecking and cawing. Karkat yells in panic and Dave feels them cut him all over his body. He gets a split second to form the mental thought  _ oh fuck _ before his PTSD starts to kick in.

Karkat ends up dragging Dave out before he curls up into a little ball and lets himself die and slams the door closed behind him. It turns out that they’re not the only ones who have been attacked by death crows with metal beaks, because nearly everyone else is out in the hall. Nearly, because Terezi isn’t and Sollux is looking horrified.

“What the fuck are those things?” Aradia wonders aloud.

“Goddamn crows with metal fucking beaks.” Eridan says.

“Sollux, where’s Terezi?” John asks Sollux. The other boy stares at him with a horrified look and shakes his head. Dave gulps. Feferi’s door suddenly breaks open and dozens of metal-beaked crows stream in. She screams and then everyone is yelling.

“Downstairs!” John shouts, and everyone starts to run down stairs. Tavros trips on the way down and Gamzee catches him and they keep going. Vriska gets tackled and pecked to death, and John stops to try and save her but gets slashed to bits too. Rose and Kanaya go for the door but get pinned and shredded. Eridan opts to try and escape by jumping out a window, which seems to actually work as he runs away into the woods, pursued by plenty of metal beaked crows. Feferi tries to follow but gets attacked and sinks to the floor, cowering as they shred her.

“Basement, basement!” Jade shouts.

Jade and Nepeta charge downstairs, Dave following closely behind along with Karkat. Aradia and Equius tail them and Tavros nearly trips down the stairs again. Gamzee nearly makes it but gets his neck ripped open by multiple slashes and stabs. Sollux gets in last by closing the door and then accidentally tripping down the stairs from his injuries.

“Deadly.” Kanaya comments.

“Well, they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t.” Aradia says.

“I take it Eridan isn’t gonna make it.” Sollux says.

“Yes, he is dying right now.” Equius says.

It takes a few minutes for Jade to find the basement light. When she does, Nepeta finds two hunting rifles. And then Dave, Jade, Aradia, Tavros, Sollux, Karkat, Nepeta, and Equius are sitting in silence in a circle, unsure of what to say. The basement door occasionally rattles as the things on the other side try to stab it open but don’t seem to be having any luck for some reason.

“We gotta get out of here.” Aradia says.

“Yeah, but how?” Dave asks. “We’re trapped. Fuck.”

“We’ve gotta think of something.” Jade says. “Let’s brainstorm guys, put our heads together, try and think of something.”

“Hold that thought,” Sollux says. “There’s someone down here with us.”

“What?” Nepeta asks.

They slowly peek around the corner and see that there’s a man in a suit of some kind facing away from them. “WTF?” Tavros says. The man slowly turns to face them.

“Aha. People.” he says in a slow, methodical voice. “I am the Great Sorcerer Jerry.”

“What kind of a name is that?” Karkat whispers, and Dave shushes him. The man raises his hand, and yellow lightning arcs forth suddenly from his palm and strikes Sollux, killing him instantly. Nepeta screams. Jade raises her rifle and fires. He moves his palm and the bullet dissolves into it. He fires more lightning and kills Jade too. Karkat steps in front of Dave defensively as Tavros goes down too. Then Karkat is gone, slumped into Dave’s arms. Dave cries, and then pauses, frozen. Equius decides to take his chances outside and opens the door, causing crows to fly in and mob the survivors, strangely avoiding Dave. They get Aradia and Nepeta, who kills one of them with a single shot, and Equius runs out into the woods, all of them chasing him. Jerry follows him too, leaving Dave alone.

Crow sighs. He hates this mortal body already. He feels the dart enter his neck and opens his eyes to find himself trapped within a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Thirteen down, three to go.

SCP-758 is returned to containment with an occult ritual. All instances of SCP-2555 are terminated with the use of flamethrowers. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

Dave and Karkat watch the cleanup operation.

“I heard Vriska got engaged.” Karkat says.

“Why should I care, exactly?” Dave asks.

“Because I want to get engaged at some point and later married?” Karkat asks.

“Didn’t happen to bring a ring, did you?” Dave asks. Karkat sighs.

“No, I didn’t.” Karkat shrugs. “Oh well.”

“Next time.” Dave says.

“Next time.” Karkat says, nodding. He leans his head on Dave’s shoulder, and Dave holds him close. The cleanup operation continues and they stand in silence.

**Significant Entity:** The Orange Crow

**Entity Threat Level:** 5 / Amida / Critical

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** The Broken Machine, The Iron Factory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crows. Crows everywhere.  
> Jerry is a stupid name for a Great Sorcerer, but that's the whole point.  
> Only three to go, and then we'll get a few wrap up chapters.


	20. 14 - At the Back of Your Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terezi's Operation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny how irrelevant the operations themselves have become and how all the importance lies with the technicians. Remember when it was the other way around? Man.

AUTUMN 2021

Latula Pyrope died in a fire two hours ago and Terezi is in her room on the bed staring at the ceiling. Sollux comes in and sits on the bed’s side.

“Hey Terezi.” Sollux says. “I take it you’re not alright.”

“Well gee, what gave you that idea.” Terezi says deadpan, continuing to stare at the ceiling. “What are you doing here, Sollux?” she asks.

“Well, I thought I’d try and comfort you.” Sollux says, lying down next to her.

“How do you plan on doing that?” Terezi asks.

“I’m not going to say if you love something let it go.” Sollux says. “And I refuse to bombard you with any cliches.” Terezi snorts. “But I will say that it’s not the end of the world.”

“Yes.” Terezi finally whispers. “You are indeed correct.” She hugs Sollux close and he kisses her on the side of the head.

1 YEAR LATER, AUTUMN 2022

MAINE

Terezi and Sollux sit in the backseat of Dave’s car as he drives and Karkat rides shotgun. They drive up into the mountains, passing thousands of pine trees. Their destination is a cabin-mansion fusion thing in the middle of the woods. They step out of the car and head inside and upstairs to their room. There are two square windows and two beds.

“Two beds, two windows. Two.” Sollux says. Terezi chuckles. “Never shut up about two, do you Appleberry Blast?”

“Why appleberry?” Sollux asks. “I’ve never gotten that.

“Because of your red and blue eyes, Sol.” Terezi says as she flops onto her bed. Sollux pulls out his phone and starts scrolling through Reddit or something. Terezi decides to pull out her own phone and play some video games on them.

BENEATH

“Shall we get started?” Rose asks as she comes inside, “Seeing as there doesn’t seem to be any buzz of any kind.”

“I’m so excited for this one.” Sollux says, looking rather jittery. “This one’s going to be weird.”

Rose goes over to the mic. “The date is October 8th.” she says. “Commencing Capture 14.”

Commencing Operation “Teal Neuron”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-843 - Beings of Thought

SCP-1000 - Psychological Chaos

ABOVE

Terezi opens her eyes. It’s three in the morning, judging by the clock on the wall. She can see a figure in the corner of the room, but she blinks and it’s gone. Standing to her feet, she can see Sollux is still asleep. She opens the door to her room, feeling odd. She hears Sollux stand behind her, and sees that he’s suddenly up too.

“Terezi?” he says. “Why are you up?” he asks.

“Why are  _ you _ up?” Terezi asks.

“I don’t know, I just woke up.” Sollux says, shrugging. Terezi opens the door and sees that everyone else is entering the hall too, confused as to why they woke up.

“Why are we all awake?” Rose asks.

“And what is that thing at the bottom of the stairs?” John asks.

“What thing?” Eridan asks. “There’s nothing there.”   
“Don’t you see it?” John asks. “That dark shape…”

Dave flicks on the lights. “Nothing there. He says. John flinches.

“It’s still there. It’s coming…” John whispers. He backs up. “It’s coming up the stairs.”

“There’s nothing there, John.” Vriska says.

John shakes his head. “Oh god, it’s-” he says, and then stops dead on the spot, before falling to his knees and going limp. Vriska sits down next to him and waves her hand in front of his face. His eyes are open, but they’re blank. She presses her fingers against his neck, and gasps.

“He’s got no pulse.” she says after several seconds.

“What?” Rose asks, and kneels next to him. “Let me see.” she checks too and shakes her head. “That doesn’t… what?”

While everyone fusses around John, Terezi continues to stare down the stairs at a figure stepping into the light.

“Latula?” she whispers. The figure steps back into darkness and walks deeper into the house. Without even realizing what she’s doing, Terezi walks after the figure. Behind her, Kanaya starts screaming in pain for seemingly no reason. By the time Terezi has exited the lit area and vanished into darkness, Kanaya is dead.

Terezi finds the thing that looks like her dead sister sitting on a chair in the living room. Terezi sits down across from Latula, ignoring the periodic screams as her friends’ worst fears and/or desires appear to them and only them to hunt them down or SCP-1000 drives them crazy straight off and then gives them heart attacks.

“Latula?” she asks hesitantly.

“Heya sis.” the thing says. “How are you doing?”

“I miss you.” Terezi says. “But you can’t be real.”

“No.” the thing says. “I may not be real. But you can talk to me. None of the others can talk to that they wish to have. Except you. Because you’re special.”

“Holy shit, 843 knows about Mindless.” Sollux says.

“Apparently it does.” Rose says. “How about that.” she adds.

“I… I wish you were still here.” Terezi says. “Things might be simpler. And there are still all these things around the house that remind me of you.”

“I see.” the thing says.

“For as little as you could make me feel next to you sometimes, your death hurt me deeply.” Terezi says. She pauses. “I think I might actually be depressed. Damn.”

“Is that all?” the thing asks.

“All I can think of.” Terezi mutters.

“I see.” the thing says. “You should go now, back to your friends.”

“Can I… hug you?” Terezi cautiously asks.

“Certainly.” the thing says.

So, Terezi hugs the thing that looks like Latula and whispers “Goodbye.” in its ear and then steps back, almost unconsciously turning and walking back towards her friends. Then she blinks and she is no longer Terezi. In her place is the entity Mindless, and she cracks her neck and sighs.

“Mortal. Only mortal.” she mutters.

The only one left in the hallway is Jade, cradling Nepeta’s corpse. Equius is somewhere else being chased by some twisted version of his horse fantasies that only he can see, but he’ll be dead very soon anyway.

“Terezi?” jade asks. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Your reckoning, let’s put it that way.” Mindless says, and breaks Jade’s mind with a tip of her chin. Mindless feels her powers diminish and snarls. Blinking for only a moment, she still wakes in a giant metal and glass cube packed to the brim with enchantments and protective anomalies in a room with equal amounts of enchantments and protective anomalies.

Fourteen down, two to go.

SCP-843 is returned to its cell using a system of Scranton Reality Anchors. SCP-1000 is contained within a D-Class host and kept in its containment unit. The cleanup operation takes a couple of days, getting rid of all the blood and gore through various means ranging from simply mopping the floor to anomalous brooms and vacuum cleaners that cleanse blood from the soil. All bodies concerned are incinerated, and all damage is repaired. All members of the hometown of the 16 clones are given amnestics to erase their existence from their memories, and all records, data, and information is expunged. Online social media accounts are deactivated, and the 16 of them seem to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

“I’ve always wondered as to why they lose their power when we stick them in mortal bodies.” Terezi says as she and Sollux sit and watch the cleanup operations.

“Oh, they don’t lose it I don’t think.” Sollux says. “I think what happens is that they get weakened because of getting stuck in mortal bodies, and then the Scrantons knock out the powers completely. I think that’s how it is.”

“Really?” Terezi says. “Hmm.”

They go back to silence.

Elsewhere, Rose is walking in one of the large amphitheater sized rooms. She hears a voice calling out to her as she walks and looks up.

“Rose!” John shouts, pushing past people to get to her. “We’ve got a problem.”

“What problem?” Rose asks.

“I was out on an excursion of a sort,” John says, panting, “And, we can’t do yours next.”

“Why?” Rose asks.

“Because if we don’t do Storm next, we’re all going to be dead in the next 62 days.” John says.

“Oh, Jesus.” Rose mutters.

“He’s going in for the kill, Rose.” John says. “He’s pissed off.”

“Shit, we have to change everything in the next month or so.” Rose says.

“This could be it, Rose.” John says.

“Oh, oh god.” Rose says, turning and running back to the control room. John stays there for a moment, before walking back over to the red circular portal leading to a forest hovering in the air with the troll version of Terezi standing next to it. She's eating an apple.

“You better be right about this.” John says.

“Right about what?” Terezi asks. “About Storm going for the kill or do you mean you want this world to go belly up?” she chuckles.

“You know what I mean.” John says. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Terezi says with surprising sincerity.

“Great.” John says.

“You know, if worst comes to worst, you can always free the Zodiac Angels.” Terezi says.

“What? That’s a terrible idea.” John says.

“No it’s not.” she says. “I can see all the futures John, trust me. Enemy of my enemy is my friend. They may not like humanity, but they hate Storm’s guts way more.”

John sighs. “Nobody’s going to like it if it comes to that.”

“So don’t let it come to that.” Terezi says. There’s a long pause before she speaks again. “You stay here, keep working. I’ll keep checking the narrative. Alright?”

“Alright.” John says. She smiles, and ruffles his hair. He winces a little.

“Ciao.” she says, walking through the portal. It closes behind her.

John takes a deep breath. “Alright.” he says. “Let’s do this.”

**Significant Entity:** The Teal Neuron

**Entity Threat Level:** 5 / Amida / Critical

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** Pure Normality, The Computer that Could See Eternity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh. That can't be good. Storm got impatient.  
> There's Terezi again. Still knows a hell of a lot more than him.  
> And the solution if things go pear-shaped is literally fight fire with fire.
> 
> Only four more chapters;  
> 1) John's Operation  
> 2) Rose's Operation  
> 3) Wrap Up and Aftermath  
> 4) Important / Relevant Story Epilogue


	21. 15 - A Breath of Fresh Air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John's Operation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [REDACTED]

WINTER 2021

Jane Crocker-Egbert was struck by lightning yesterday and died as a result. John is left to pick

[ERROR]

1 YEAR LATER, WINTER 2022

MAINE

[ERROR]

BENEATH

Date: December 3rd, 2022

Capture: 15

[REMAINING INFORMATION REDACTED]

Commencing Operation “Azure Sky”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-2076 - The Sigh

SCP-3196 - Stalker-Slicers

ABOVE

[REDACTED]

“It’s gone.” John says as he stares at the file. “The whole damn thing. The entire file has just been… expunged.”

“And what do you think it means?” Rose asks.

“It was expunged by the Director.” John says. “Something happened that she didn’t want us to know about. Maybe it was… Ah.”

“Ah, what?” Rose asks.

“Something tried to take over the file so she unwrote the whole thing.” John says.

“Tried to take over?” Rose asks. “Like before? But I thought it would have stopped by now?”

“No,” John says. “It never stopped. It’s still going.”

Nothing is controlling the narrative. John is quite positive of this fact.

“There it is.” John says. “Prodding at my brain.”

**Significant Entity:** The Azure Sky

**Entity Threat Level:** 6 / Apollyon

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** The End of Everything, The Sky is Falling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I suppose the chapter name is technically a joke considering that this one is just straight up redacted, thus giving us a Breath of Fresh Air from all the constant death.  
> Also, there goes the file. Gone before I even wrote it.  
> The narrative controller is still there. Bad.


	22. 16 - Eldritch Horror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose's Operation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it. This is the End.

WINTER 2021

Roxy Lalonde disappeared, seemingly having vanished into thin air. Rose Lalonde is hurting inside, and Kanaya is here for her. “I’ve got you Rose.” she whispers.

“Roxy could be dead.” Rose whispers. “If she is, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“They’ll find her Rose.” Kanaya says. “I’m sure of it.”

“You really think so?” Rose asks.

“They will. She’ll be alright.” Kanaya says.

The search and rescue party never finds Roxy’s body. Instead, a local simply stumbles across it three months after her disappearance.

1 YEAR LATER, WINTER 2022

MAINE

Kanaya drives while Rose rides shotgun, reading a book, while Eridan and Feferi are in the backseat. Rose is too focused on the book. It all feels too wonderfully eldritch for her to focus on anything else. The car stops, and Rose glances up at the massive mansion-cabin-thing. She steps out, grabbing her stuff. John begins to brag about how the company the cabin belongs to, Crockercorp, has a lot of money and Rose tunes him out as she and Kanaya head upstairs to their room. It has a diamond shaped window and a pair of beds. Rose flops onto her bed and continues reading her book. Kanaya does the same with a book of her own.

“What are you reading, Rose?” Kanaya asks at some point.

“ _ Annihilation _ by Jeff VanderMeer.” Rose says.

“What’s it about?” Kanaya asks.

“Four female scientists enter a strange zone and descend into a tower of sorts.” Rose explains. “And it gets strange. And eldritch towards the end.”

“Eldritch, I see.” Kanaya says.

“My kind of story.” Rose says.

“I wonder why.” Kanaya says.

BENEATH

“So you’re saying that the Administrator redacted the whole file.” Rose says, and John nods.

“Yes, because whatever has been trying to take control of this situation acted, and they went strong and fast.” John says.

“Hmm.” Rose says. “So we should be extra careful, or we could all get killed.”

“I guess so.” John says.

“Interesting.” Rose says.

“What is?” John asks.

“It seems like every time you come back, you’re more mature than the last time you were here.” Rose says. John shrugs. She smiles and goes over to the mic. “The date is December 24th, 2022. This is our 16th and final capture.”

“This is it.” Dave says. “Holy shit, this is really it.”

“One last question before it all kicks off;” Jade asks. “Crockercorp is working with us, right?”

“Yep.” Rose says. “The higher-ups know about the cloning, and they know about the slaughter to save our world.”

“Ah.” Jade says, nodding. “Right.”

Commencing Operation “Lavender Sun”

ACTIVE SCP OBJECTS:

SCP-2470 - Crazed Cultists of Occult Russia

SCP-3872 - Shoggoth

ABOVE

Rose opens her eyes to see Kanaya in the bed across from hers and  _ Annihilation _ under her pillow. She stands, rubbing her forehead. Looking out the window, she can see several figures in red robes carrying strange weapons that look like axes combined with swords. There are about a half-dozen of them, and in front of them is a dark black creature that seems to constantly be changing shape but remains an amorphous blob.

“What in the…” Rose mutters.

She goes downstairs and goes to the door. The people in red robes have to try and break the door down, but the blob squeezes right through the cracks and ‘reforms’ on the other side. She watches it in horror. She knows, somehow, what this thing is. A shoggoth, straight out of any Lovecraftian horror work. She backs up, heads towards the stairs. The door smashes in and she bolts up to her room. She shakes Kanaya, telling her to wake up, practically shouting her name. Kanaya blinks against the dark.

“Rose?” Kanaya asks. “What time is it?”

“Kanaya, something’s wrong.” Rose says. “There’s something inside. I… I don’t…”

Kanaya and Rose peek out of their room and see the shoggoth-thing slowly making its way up the stairs at a snail’s pace, the cultists right behind it.

“We should wake the others.” Kanaya suggests.

“Yes, that seems like a good idea.” Rose says.

Everyone ends up backing up as the thing makes its way into the bottleneck of a hallway with the cultist people closely behind it. They see the large group of people and seem to consider what to do. Then, one of them throws their axe-swords without warning. Aradia gets her skull split in half and Equius actually yells in panic as he’s splattered with blood.

“Run!” John yells, and everyone starts running in all sorts of directions. Rose grabs Kanaya’s hand and they run off into the house. Behind them, the shoggoth increases in speed suddenly and covers Equius, starting to melt his flesh, and he screams. Rose and Kanaya follow Jade and Nepeta as they run. One of the cultists throws his axe-sword at them, but strikes Nepeta in the back, inciting Jade to stop running and try and help her up, but that only gets both of them ran through. Rose and Kanaya run down a flight of stairs and find themselves at the back door. Barely stopping, they crash right through it and charge into the woods. It feels less like they’re running and more like they’re being dragged along.

“Where the fuck are we going?” Rose asks between panting.

“Away.” Kanaya manages to get out.

They keep running until they stumble across an old cabin sitting in the woods. It feels… calming. Nearby there are old gravestones with names etched into the stone long since faded. And there is a hole in the ground. Past the dirt and the mud, there is a clean glass cube. One of its walls is made of metal with a control panel of some sort in the corner. There is also the outline of double doors. Kanaya exchanges a glance with Rose.

“What the…?” Rose asks, and Kanaya shrugs.

“Think we should go in?” Kanaya asks. “It’s obviously not natural.”

“I…” Rose says. She nods. “Yeah.”

Rose and Kanaya, almost unconsciously, lower themselves into the elevator and Kanaya starts fiddling with the wall panel. With a clunk, the elevator starts moving down, the top closing as they slide down into the depths of the Earth.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” Rose shouts as Aradia, Sollux, Equius, and Kanaya flip switches and press buttons. “This is a shitshow. Why in the hell didn’t that door close!?”

“It should be closed, I flipped three times just in case!” Aradia says.

“Then why the fuck was it open!?” Rose asks.

“I don’t know!” Aradia responds.

“This is bad, oh god this is bad.” Sollux mutters.

“I can’t stall the elevator. They’re going down.” Kanaya says.

“Equius, tell the wranglers to move in and call the SCPs back as soon as possible.” Rose says.

“They already did that as soon as they got the warning.” Equius says.

“Dave, please tell me you sent a security team!” Rose says.

“Yeah, I sent Vriska’s team and Hayward is already at the elevators.” Dave says.

“Good.” Rose says, turning to John. “John, you think it could be our narrative lurker?” she asks.

“Quite possibly.” John says. “We need to finish this.”   
  


The elevator that Rose and Kanaya are in passes a good four dozen or so other cubes containing monsters of all kinds. A few of them are empty. “What in the…” Kanaya mutters as their cube passes a cube containing three fairy-looking creatures glowing with red light.

“I think somebody was capturing monsters.” Rose says as they are moved past a wolf standing on two legs with eyes that seem to bore into her soul. “But… why?”

Two more cubes descend, coming to a stop next to their cube. In them are the shoggoth from earlier and the six cultists in red robes, their weapons still wet with blood. “Oh my god.” Kanaya says, realization coming over her face.

“They used them… to kill us?” Rose asks. “Why? What did we ever…?”

The cube passes the area filled with monsters, sliding through a dark hallway, and coming to a stop with a  _ clunk _ . The double doors open at the same time that a pair of elevator doors slide open, revealing a man holding a pistol.

“Freeze!” he calls. “Hands in the air!”

Rose looks at his nametag. It says  _ Hayward _ . “Who are you?” she asks. “What is this place?”

“Hands in the air.” he says with less confidence in his voice. As his aim wavers, Kanaya suddenly shoots forwards and slams into him. He stumbles to the side, and Rose takes advantage of the moment to crash into him too, pulling the gun from his hands. They slam his forehead into the wall and he slumps to the ground, unconscious. Rose pushes his body into the cube. The elevator doors close, and judging by the sound, the cube is moving away. Looking around, the room they’re in is tall. The floors are made of pristine white tile, perfectly clean. On one side of the room there is a hallway that goes left and right. On the other side there is a control room of some sort with a large glass window and two doors on the sides. There are eight elevators, four on each of the vacant walls. An intercom crackles and a voice sounds out.

“You won’t be getting out of here alive.” the voice says.

“That’s my voice.” Rose says. “What?” Kanaya takes her hand. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I get it.” Rose says into the mic in the control room as everyone stares at the large screen on the wall showing Vriska’s 16-strong security team move through the halls towards the elevator hall. “You must already think we’re evil. I suppose, maybe we are.” Rose pauses. “But what we’re doing is for the good of mankind. Kanaya Maryam, you must die. And Rose Lalonde. You must become a host to something terrible. A god who could end this world in a heartbeat if it so desired. We cannot allow that to happen. This is for the greater good.”

“They know our names.” Kanaya says. Rose tightens her grip on the pistol. “How can they know our names?” Rose pauses.

“Kanaya, do you hear that?” she asks. They pause. There are people running towards them. Many people with thick boots. They’re both thinking the same thing. “Guards.” Rose says.

As the footsteps increase in volume, they run to one of the two doors at the end of the room. Kanaya fiddles with the doorknob for a moment, and is amazed to find it unlocked. They duck down behind the control console in the center just as bullets rain on the glass, which is apparently bulletproof, judging by how it hasn’t shattered already. Rose scans the room for a way out. There are computers, screens displaying visuals of monsters, and a switchboard covered in buttons, keypads, and switches. Two things catch her eye. A single red button and a red lever. Above them, the words ‘SYSTEM PURGE’. Rose looks back at the screens and then at the switchboard. “They’re connected to the cubes.” she whispers.

“Rose, we have an unknown schematic.” Equius says.

“What do you mean by that? How is that important?” Rose asks.

“I do not know, a whole new button just appeared in the elevator control room.” Equius says.

“How did it get there?” Rose asks.

“I do not know, it’s as if it appeared overnight.” Equius says.

“What does it do?” Rose asks.

“It is connected to every system in the facility.” Equius says.

“ _ What _ ?” Rose asks. “What’s it called?”

“Um… System Purge.” Equius reads.

Rose goes silent, her face white as a sheet. “Oh, fuck.” she whispers.

“Army of nightmares.” Rose whispers. She flips the red lever as bullets rain on the glass. An orange light flicks on above it. She looks at the button, and then turns to Kanaya, who nods.

“Let’s get this party started.” Rose says.

She slams her hand on the red button.

Vriska hears her comms flicker off with a beep and raises her arm. “Cease fire!” she calls, and the soldiers stop shooting. Several more audible beeps ring out as the other soldiers’ comms systems fail too for unknown reasons. They hear the sound of cubes moving along tracks towards the elevators, and a robotic voice speaks over the intercom.

“System Purge Protocol activated.” the voice says. “Jettisoning all cells.”

“Oh, fuck me.” Vriska says. One by one, all 16 of the soldiers, Vriska included, take aim at the elevator doors in preparation for the onslaught. As the cubes come to a stop with a clunk, Vriska forms one last thought before all hell breaks loose;  _ Goddammit, I just got married. _

Then, with an audible  _ ding _ , the elevator doors open.

SYSTEM PURGE WAVE 1

SCP-3196 - Stalker-Slicers B1

SCP-4951 - An Angry Cedar Tree B2

SCP-008 - Zombie Apocalypse B3

SCP-389 - The Fairies of Druzhba  B4

SCP-254 - Vampire (s), plural this time A1

SCP-380 - The Witch A2

SCP-250 - Blood Crabs A3

SCP-036 - Discount Wendigo  A4

Bullets fly through the room as the SCPs attack. One soldier gets picked up and dropped by one of the giant bat-looking Stalker-Slicers after which a second creature attacks his corpse, and a second soldier gets attacked by a third of the creatures, which dices him.

Two of them get wrapped up in vines and branches and get dragged into a cube by An Angry Cedar Tree, shredding them apart. Blood spills out of the cube.

Two soldiers get knocked to the ground by the Zombie Apocalypse and shredded.

One soldier gets his head twisted off by one of the Fairies of Druzhba, and another two tear a second soldier in half and throw his corpse against the glass window of the control room.

One soldier gets attacked by two Vampire (s), plural this time, and Vriska gets attacked by two more of them, sucking all of her blood out.

Two soldiers get their souls ripped out by the Witch in twin flashes of pink, and she cackles as she flies up into the air, their bodies hitting the floor, completely lifeless.

Two soldiers get hooked by one of the Blood Crabs, dragged in, and slowly sawed apart into dozens of tiny bits. The other two wait behind the first one in the cube.

One soldier gets lifted up and crushed in the Discount Wendigo’s left hand. A second soldier fires at it, so it scoops him up with its right hand, bites his head off, and swallows him whole.

One by one, the SCPs open their mouths and begin to scream in sync, a sound that echoes throughout the entire facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put Annihilation in there because of the end bit with descending into the Earth and getting eldritch towards the end.  
> Vriska just got married last week and now she has to die. Sad, I guess.  
> Oh well.  
> SYSTEM PURGE TIME, BABY!


	23. System Purge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SYSTEM PURGE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All hell breaks loose, Cabin in the Woods style!  
> I had to rewatch the same scene over and over, checking every single screen for ideas of what these screens might be showing during the System Purge. It took me hours.

LEVEL 6 ACCESS REQUIRED

Level 6 Access Code Recognized…

Decrypting…

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROTECTED BY A

**MORSANGUÎS**

CLASS MEMETIC KILL AGENT

BY THE ORDER OF THE SIERRA-NEVADA-32 ZODIAC COUNSEL

AND THE TAU-5 OMEGA-5 COUNCIL

[ID Recognized.]

[Welcome, Doctor John Harley.]

[I hope you enjoy watching the people you helped save die.]

* * *

_ KWANK _

_ KWANK _

_ KWANK _

Alarms blared, and the hallways flashed between white and red light every few seconds.

“GYAAAAH!!!!” a voice screamed from down the hall as Terezi’s security team charged in.

“Go, go, go!” Terezi shouted, fifteen soldiers following behind her.

“Oh god!” a voice shouted from the room beyond, and they rounded the hallway corner to see the elevator room a short way ahead to their left and the hallway continuing on and going right.

“Engage!” Terezi shouted as they fired at all of the creatures escaping through the right exit, the Fairies laughing at them and the Wendigo’s legs slapping against the walls as it crawled.

“We need backup!” one of the soldiers shouts as they round the corner again and stare into the elevator room. Terezi slowly lowers her gun in shock and horror.

“Oh, my god.” she whispers.

The room was bathed in blood. Bodies were everywhere, not a single one of them un-dismembered. Three zombies chewed on the innards of three of the corpses, and a collection of guts fell from the ceiling and splattered on the ground. The zombies slowly turned their attention to the security team and simply watched them. Then, with a  _ ding _ sound, the elevators slide open a second time.

SYSTEM PURGE WAVE 2

SCP-547 - The King of the Violet Abyss  B1

SCP-2787 - Anomalous Wolves of Thompson Church B2

SCP-150 - Ghosts in a jar  B3

SCP-2470 - Crazed Cultists of Occult Russia B4

SCP-524 - The Straw Men of Potter’s Field A1

SCP-4479 - The Silent Bride A2

SCP-3850 - Wolf-Skin A3

SCP-277 - A whole load of giant insects A4

Rose and Kanaya blinked back tears as they clasped their hands together as the sound of ripping meat, screaming, splattering gore, roaring, and clicking and hissing fills the room that they’re in as sound bounces into it. Rose slowly looks up. An arm slaps against the bloody window. A soldier turns to try and fire into an elevator as a giant mosquito slams into his head and knocks him down, a torrent of insects following. The alarms continue to blare, and Rose ducks down as the elevators  _ ding _ for the third time as the creatures begin to spread throughout the facility.

SYSTEM PURGE WAVE 3

SCP-3677 - The Angels of Yahweh B1

SCP-758 - The Great Sorcerer Jerry B2

SCP-1000 - Psychological Chaos B3

SCP-2912 - The Blood Fae B4

SCP-611 - Death Cats (Cats who kill you) A1

SCP-3872 - Shoggoth A2

SCP-642 - Things of the Dark A3

SCP-2880 - Jack of Lanterns A4

* * *

Jade scans her eyes across the many screens in the control room.

In one of the facility’s large rooms, Ghosts tear through the crowd in a hallway, slashing each of them like the blades of a thousand knives. They disperse throughout the room as the Cultists attack those on one of the balconies of the second floor. As the sound of gunfire echoes through the room, one of the Cultists grabs a desk worker and throws him over the edge, but instead of hitting the floor he’s caught in the mouth of the Wendigo, which hisses.

At a stairwell, several people are chained up together as the King of the Violet Abyss prepares to slaughter them. A man runs out a door, yelling “What do we do!”

Scientists and workers scatter as the three Blood Crabs stumble down a flight of stairs, buzzsaws waving in the air.

A woman screams as The Silent Bride presses a knife into a woman’s chest and then turns to a man, who screams “Please don’t kill me!”

Several Vampires crawl along the ceiling, looking at the cameras.

Zombies try to push into a room with two men holding the door. A woman gives up and shoots herself with a pistol rather than suffer.

Going over to the nine security screens on the wall, Jade can see that none of them are displaying any of the locations where security is currently operating, perhaps because they’re all dead. She stares across the nine horrors they have to offer.

On the first screen, the Witch seems to be trying to grab a woman’s leg and suck her soul out.

On the second screen, it is for a moment a female scientist pleading to the camera, but it changes to a man being dragged away in a clutch of branches by the Tree.

On the third screen, Insects are ripping apart corpses all over the floor.

On the fourth screen, Jade can see Feferi in an office. A wolf paw enters the frame as the Wolf-Skin slowly approaches her. Feferi backs away, but knows that there’s no escape.

On the fifth screen, Scarecrows douse people in gasoline and light them on fire.

On the sixth screen, the Shoggoth seems to be having fun melting a man’s face as he screams.

On the seventh screen, Jerry the Sorcerer is choking a man with a bag for some reason.

On the eighth screen, several Angels walk through an empty room, brightening it.

On the ninth screen, Jack the pumpkin-headed scarecrow is burning a man in a hallway.

“Get the fuck off me!” a panicked voice shouts from one of the screens, and a moment later the third screen changes to the Fairies howling with laughter as they slaughter everyone in a hall. She hears the distinctive  _ ding _ from one of the screens up front as the elevators open a fourth and final time.

SYSTEM PURGE WAVE 4

SCP-3581 - Super Clowns™ B1

SCP-472 - Longlegs B2

SCP-2618 - Texas Chainsaw Undead Family B3

SCP-2076 - The Sigh B4

SCP-001 - The Seraph A1

SCP-2555 - Birds of Darkness A2

SCP-4661 - The Last Unicorn A3

SCP-843 - Beings of Thought A4

Just then, Dave comes by, flicks a few switches, and the nine screens change to cameras in the same area as a security team tries to fend off the giant Death Cats all around them.

“Karkat, copy, come in, do you copy.” he says with desperation into his walkie-talkie, scanning each of the cameras in horror as he looks for the other man.

“Repeat, copy Sergeant Vantas.” Dave says, nearly choking on his words.

“Where’s Vantas!?” one of the soldiers shouts on screen as another runs up to him.

“The sarge is gone! Let’s get the fuck out of here!” the other one shouts.

“Dawson, get out of the way!” the first one shouts, moving the second one aside to fire his shotgun offscreen, inciting a cat to yowl loudly.

“They aren’t working!” the second one says. “The guns are supposed to kill them! They aren’t working! WHY AREN’T THEY WORKING!?”

Dave lowers the walkie talkie from his ear. “Re-report…” he trails off, watching as the rest of the security guards are slaughtered, picked off one by one. “Oh… oh god.” he slumps in his chair.

John comes up to him. “Dave. Dave, we have a job to do.” he says. Dave nods.

“Right.” he says, trying to blink away the tears as he switches the signal on his walkie talkie. “Officer Strider to Tau-5 Security Command, requesting  _ immediate _ Epsilon-11 reinforcements, Code Dark, repeat…” he trails off, choking on his words again. “Code Dark.”

John has a walkie-talkie of his own, and he passes Jade as he says “Archangel to SCP, where the  _ fuck _ are you guys? We’re getting slaughtered down here!”

Jade passes a few more screens, searching. “Where are you Nep?” she mutters. “Where are you?” her search draws a blank, so she checks all the screens at the front. There are four on the right, four on the left, and one in the center, as well as four on the main console.

Left screen 1; The Sigh is freezing someone with its literal ice-cold breath.

Left screen 2; Psycho-Chaos is screwing everyone’s minds before giving them heart attacks.

Left screen 3; Wolves are mauling Tavros to death, for the second time technically speaking.

Left screen 4; Beings of Thought are making people see things.

Center screen; The Blood Fae is dancing in the large bloody elevator room.

Right screen 1; A room goes dark light by light, and a man is sucked into the dark.

Right screen 2; The Seraph is setting more people on fire with its flame-sword.

Right screen 3; Eridan is holding up signs about how the Birds of Darkness have his scent.

Right screen 4; The Texas Chainsaw Undead Family is massacring a locker room.

Console screen 1; Clowns are laughing at the camera as they crowd around it.

Console screen 2; Longlegs is eating someone with its flesh sack in a large dark empty room.

Console screen 3; Stalker-Slicers are shredding a person as they huddle in a corner.

Console screen 4; The Last Unicorn is stalking around near the corpse of someone it gored.

“Sector 12 down, Sector 8 down, Sector 3 down…” Kanaya says in horror.

“Jesus Christ!” Aradia shouts.

“Why aren’t the defences working?” Rose asks, trying to keep her cool.

“Where’s the fucking gas!?” Sollux shouts.

“Our systems are failing one by one.” Equius says as on screen, the door to Eridan’s room breaks open and black crows with metal beaks swoop in and slash him to death.

Kanaya lists them off, her voice getting increasingly horrified. “Anomaly cells, barrier mechanisms, defense systems, power…” she pauses. “God containment.”

“Fuck!” Rose shouts, running over to a second steel door in the far corner of the room and starting to open it. “We have to get down there.”

“Sector 4 just went completely dark.” Equius says.

“642 must have gotten to it.” Kanaya says.

“Breach! We have a surface breach!” Sollux shouts.

“What is it!? What did we lose!?” Aradia shouts.

“I don’t know, something scary!” Sollux shouts.

Then, the power cuts out.

Emergency power kicks in about two seconds later, and a woman’s scream can be heard in the hallway outside shortly before several bodies slam against the iron door inside, trying to get in. Dave raises his machine gun, and Rose, Jade, John, Aradia, Equius, Kanaya and Sollux head for the iron door at the end of the room.

* * *

A Stalker-Slicer crashes through the window to the control room that Rose and Kanaya are in. The giant bat looking thing struggles to its feet and hisses at them. They run out of the room pretty quickly, exiting through one of the two doors and into the gorey elevator room, which is dark and running on emergency power now. Rose raises the pistol and shoots a zombie before it bites her shoulder, stumbling backwards. The Stalker-Slicer jumps atop the control panel and screams at them for five seconds straight. Kanaya takes Rose’s hand and they run past the Blood Fae, which is slowly walking after a soldier crawling for his life. They run into a scientist.

“The north exit is blocked!” he shouts. “You can’t go that-!” the Stalker-Slicer suddenly crashes into him and slams him into the wall, into a gap of some sort. It begins to rip him apart and eat him as Rose and Kanaya watch in horror.

“Where are you going?” the Blood Fae somehow asks the soldier as he crawls for his life.

“Please…” he sobs out. “Please don’t kill me.”

“It won’t hurt if you don’t say a word.” the Blood Fae says. The Stalker-Slicer elects to ignore Rose and Kanaya and go after bigger prey, knocking both of them down as it flies past and down the right hallway, which explodes behind them, and they both scream. Kanaya turns and sees several zombies coming down the left hall towards them. They scan around for options and realize that the gap in the wall isn’t a gap, it’s a service tunnel of some kind. It looks old, forgotten, abandoned. Something of the past.

“You go first.” Rose offers, and Kanaya nods and goes inside. Rose stares at the zombies for a moment longer before running after her girlfriend.

Elsewhere, the Wolf-Skin runs on its hind legs towards an office worker, grabbing him and taking a chunk out of his neck. Nearby, a Clown pulls a knife out of a man’s gut and turns to Nepeta, who is armed with a pistol. It laughs at her. She fires. It hits the thing square in the chest, but it barely reacts short of raising its eyebrows and mockingly laughing. She mutters something and fires four more times, trying to back up, but sees a second clown behind her and gets attacked by both at once, killing her. Nearby her, Gamzee runs down a hallway in a panic, being chased by the Unicorn. He reaches the end of the hall and tries to open the door, but it’s locked for some reason. He turns and gets gored in the chest by its horn, twice in fact. It whinnies as he slides to the floor, leaving a slick wet trail of blood on the wall behind him.

_ KWANK _

_ KWANK _

_ KWANK _

The elevator room is empty. Remnants of bodies are everywhere, and there is so much blood that it is actually merging together to form one massive pool. There is meat paste everywhere, red froth all over the ground. One of the elevators  _ dings _ and slides open. A soldier in a similar SWAT-like outfit to the guards of this facility steps out, gun raised, gesturing for others to follow. The insignia on his shoulder is a fox head with nine lines arcing out from it.

* * *

Sollux shoots a giant spider with a machine gun as it comes through a hole in the wall, killing it. Dave fires at the scarecrows entering the room. A few of them go down, but most of them tackle him to the ground. Rose finally opens the multi-locked door at the end of the room and gestures for Kanaya to go first, and John hesitantly follows her. Dave panics and blows a grenade, killing him and several scarecrows, and Equius is knocked to the side by the blast.

“Equius!” Aradia shouts just before Rose half-shoves her into the room.

“Sollux, come on!” Rose shouts, and he empties his clip, tossing it aside in favour for a new one as more giant insects come into the room.

“Fuck, these things are everywhere!” he curses under his breath, seemingly having barely heard her.

“Jade, look-!” Rose starts as a hole is ripped in the ceiling and Jade is grabbed by the Wendigo’s massive arm and carried up to be shredded. Sollux empties his clip again, loading another.

“Shit!” he shouts, running past the downed Equius and heading towards the door. He hears a hiss from above as he fires at a few more giant insects, and slowly turns his head upwards to see a Stalker-Slicer. He raises his gun, and it drops, crushing him and shredding him. Rose has no choice but to close the door lest the creature decide to follow them, leaving Equius behind. Aradia, John, Rose, and Kanaya charge through the old tunnels heading downwards.

Back in the room as the explosion smoke clears, Equius opens his eyes and sees a shape striding out of the gloom towards him from the open doorway. He slowly stands, trying to see what it is. When he finally gets a good look at it, he sighs.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” he says.

The Unicorn gores him on its horn, several times.

Rose stops when she hears a beeping sound coming from her walkie-talkie, and gestures for everyone to stop running so she can hear. She brings it up to her ear. “Hello?” she asks.

“Hey there Rosaline.” a male voice on the other side says. “This is Sergeant Moreno of Epsilon-11.” she instantly breaks into a smile of sorts. “Don’t you worry, we’re going to clean this place up for, spic and span.”

“It’s Nine Tailed Fox.” she says, and the others instantly look relieved.

“Oh thank  _ fuck _ .” Aradia says.

  
Up above, twelve soldiers with the aforementioned fox insignias on their shoulders ready their guns. “Alright people. We’ve already cleared out the bugs on the surface.” Their leader Sergeant Moreno says. “Now let’s show the rest of these SCPs what a  _ real _ System Purge looks like.” the soldiers raise their guns and move into the facility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh, the Narrative Controller (who we'll soon learn the name of) is talking to whoever is reading this incident.  
> And then there were four. Twelve out of sixteen main characters slaughtered in a few thousand words.  
> Also, hooray, Nine Tailed Fox is here! For non-SCP fans, those guys do all the recapturing of escaped monsters basically. Although, they aren't really doing recapturing in this case, as we'll soon see...


	24. Annihilation / Akrught Protocol

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akrught Protocol Activated;  
> Epsilon-11 Deployed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end...

**Active Epsilon-11 Members**

Lowe 287

Watkins 364

Andrews 113

Moore 117

Goodwin 212

Simmons 451

Chambers 694

Robertson 502

Edwards 908

Gardener 745

Anderson 827

Moreno 668

AKRUGHT PROTOCOL PRIMARY STATEMENT:

Every 10 years, we must purge the Anomalous with the use of special weapons specifically designed to destroy them. Out with the old, in with the new.

The first thing Moreno does is plug his ipod into the control panel in the side room that controls the elevators. He waits for it to start playing his music and goes forwards.

[ “Let’s have some fun.” Moreno says. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22XqGkuIFw)

[0:00]

The soldiers flick on their Anomaly Detectors and begin to move into the facility, starting with Sector 1. “If we can get to Sector 12, we can deal with the ones that never stop spawning instances.” Moreno says. “In we go.”

[0:15]

**SECTOR 1**

The first thing the group finds is SCP-472, Longlegs. While not usually hostile, it seems to have been wound up by all the deaths around it, and hisses at them. The soldiers barely flinch as they raise their guns and fill it with lead. It screams and starts to darken the room as eyes appear all around it, but their bullets are quicker and it drops dead to the ground.

[0:31]

Continuing on, the group comes across the only other entity still in Sector 1, SCP-4951, an Angry Cedar Tree. “Fill it with daylight.” Moreno casually says, and the soldiers open fire. It whips vines and lashes branches at them, but they keep shooting and fill its bark with bullets. The fight slowly goes out of it and it slumps to the ground. Goodwin throws a specialized grenade that burns it to a crisp just in case. “Nice throw, Goodwin.” Moreno says.

“Thank you sir.” Goodwin says.

[0:46]

**SECTOR 2**

Sector 2 is bigger than Sector 1, but not by a particularly large size. However, it does have its fair share of anomalous running around. Entering the next part of the complex, the soldiers find the three instances of SCP-389, the Fairies of Druzhba. They open fire and get two of them, inciting the third one to fly at them, glowing red with rage. Moreno’s second in command, Anderson, kills it before it gets his head.

“Thanks Anderson.” Moreno says.

“You can count on me, sir.” she says.

[1:01]

Entering into a large room, they stumble across the four winged SCP-001, the Seraph. Flying around in the air are the three instances of SCP-150, Ghosts in a jar. The soldiers take aim and start firing, with Moreno firing at the Seraph. Most of the bullets burn away around it, but the ones that don’t cause it to somehow glow even brighter until it’s like staring at the sun. The three ghosts are hard to hit, but with enough bullets they shatter apart like glass. Moments later, the Seraph explodes, sending small cinders flying everywhere.

“And that is how we do it.” Moreno says. “Come on fellas.”

[1:17]

SCP-2880, Jack of Lanterns is in the next large room they find, standing on a balcony, his flaming pumpkin head lighting the darkened area. On the ground, the six instances of SCP-2618, Texas Chainsaw Undead Family, are lingering around. The soldiers start firing again and take out the zombies one by one as they approach. Simmons nearly gets a chainsaw to the face, but his gun is faster than the undead can run. With the six of them down, Jack starts breathing fire at them, causing them to scatter but continue to fire bullets at him. They take chunks out of his shoulders, knock his arms off, and Robertson throws a grenade that knocks him off the balcony and sends him falling to the ground. The fire in his head slowly fades until it flickers out entirely and Moreno comes running up, stomping on the thing’s head.

[1:32]

The next room they find an SCP in is blood splattered just like everywhere else, but just like the elevator room the blood covers the entire floor and the entrails and bodies are now little more than frothy red paste. SCP-036, the Discount Wendigo, is sitting in the middle of it all, ripping a body apart and eating it slowly. Its pale body has been stained red with gore.

“Fire!” Moreno shouts, and they start shooting at it. The overwhelming amount of bullets incites it to drop the body, make a screeching noise that hurts the ears a little, and then turn and run out of the room, slipping and sliding on the blood it leaves behind. Epsilon-11 gives chase.

“Get him, get him, get him!” Moreno shouts, and laughs. “Come back here, fucker! Where do you think you’re going!?”

[1:48]

**SECTOR 3**

They lose track of the thing as they enter the remarkably small Sector 3, the first room of which is jam packed with many instances of SCP-611, Death Cats (Cats who kill you). They hiss and charge. The soldiers fire at them, and they keep charging, seemingly oblivious to their own mortality. When most of them are killed and the corpses of giant cats are everywhere, they finally decide to retreat, but by then it’s too late for them and they are exterminated. The group keeps going, chasing the Wendigo’s signature as it gets deeper into the facility.

[2:03]

They stumble upon the six members of SCP-2470, the Crazed Cultists of Occult Russia, purely by accident and open fire at them. Their red robes are stained with even more blood and turn from bright scarlet to a dark burgundy. They are remarkably resilient however, and can also fly which makes them a bit more difficult to deal with. One of them nearly hits Edwards with its axe-sword thing, but it gets taken down before it can do any damage. The group pauses to rest for only a moment before they continue hunting the Wendigo, which isn’t far now.

[2:19]

They find the Wendigo having gotten itself stuck in a corner of some large room which it can’t quite squeeze out the hallway of. Seeing the soldiers of Epsilon-11, it snarls.

“Hello old enemy.” Moreno says. “Let’s wrap this up, big boy.”

They start shooting and it screams in pain. For a moment, it even seems less like a monster and more like a person, trying and failing to escape the gunfire. Anderson, along with the other soldiers, actually stop shooting because they feel bad about it. The wails of the creature are too much to bear, but Moreno keeps shooting, laughing. There’s a fire in his eyes as he does, clearly having fun slaughtering this creature which has been reduced from a mighty terror to something fearful. Its mournful cries are those of a life not wanting to end.

[2:35]

The creature finally goes down and Moreno puts a few more shots in its skull for good measure, and laughs. “I can’t believe we’re getting paid to do this!” he says, chuckling now.

“You’re actually enjoying this, aren’t you?” Anderson asks.

“Why, am I not supposed to?” Moreno asks.

“Well, it’s just… I can’t help but feel a little bad.” Anderson says. “But if you want to be the one sadist in a group of regretful soldiers, be my guest sir.”

“Alright. Let’s move out.” Moreno says. “Keep going.”

* * *

“Rose, I can’t go any farther.” John says, stopping.

“What? Why?” Rose asks. “Come on John. She’s not that bad.”

“You don’t understand Rose.” John says. “I’ve met her before. Back when she was… he.”

“What do you mean?” Rose asks, gesturing for Aradia and Kanaya to keep going as she goes over to John. However, they simply stand and wait for both of them.

“I’ve given you some hints about what I can do and who I think I might become.” John says. “But I haven’t told you how I know the Director.”

“What do you mean, John? What happened?” Rose asks.

“A few months ago on my end, before I came to work with this organization, I ended up in this world called Alpha-Charlie-6.” John explains, sighing.

“I know of it.” Rose says. “What about it?”

“I met the Director, and he was a dragon.” John says. “I do mean he, by the way. He… tortured me. He wanted my power. He wanted to control his universe, and then he found out he could control all the rest of them, so he tortured me, trying to get it.”

“That’s horrible.” Rose says. “How did you escape?”

“I can’t remember, I’ve sort of blocked out the whole thing.” John says. “As for the gender-swap, I’m not sure. I hear he got stuck in a female body for narrative reasons, and apparently I do it, and that’s another reason why he hates me. He’s rather salty about losing all his power.”

“I…” Rose says. “Look John. I know that this will probably be hard for you, but you might need to move past it. Okay?” John sighs. “It might be better for you to confront this. Alright?”

John seems to have an internal struggle of some kind. “I considered saying that I would rather take my chances up there rather than down here, but that would be a lie.” he finally says, nodding at Rose. “Let’s go.”

Rose continues forwards, but John is a little shaky on his feet. Aradia takes his hand and has to sort of drag him along given how nervous and slightly unwilling he is about the whole situation.

* * *

[ Epsilon-11 stares into the darkness of their next sector. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndp3uB8Bu-E)

[0:00]

**SECTOR 4**

“That’s dark. 642 must’ve gotten to it.” Lowe says.

“Switch to night vision.” Moreno says. “And remember; There are no more than eleven.”

“There are no more than eleven.” the other soldiers repeat one after another.

“Alright. Let’s do this.” Moreno says.

[0:10]

The soldiers step into pure darkness and fan out, guided by the green sight of their night vision. Moreno is the one who fires the first shot at one of the things hidden in the dark. It looks like a pure black human with no facial features, showing up as greenish on his sensors. Bullets fill it, and it goes down. “Remember, don’t look at the corpses.” Moreno says, firing a few more shots into the body as he passes but not actually looking at it. “Not unless you want your brain to leak out your ears.”

[0:30]

Gunshots fill the silence as soldiers fire at the things hidden in the dark. No longer are they the hunters of those who enter their domain. Now, they are the hunted. Moreno gets a second one of the creatures and once again makes a conscious effort not to look at the corpse of the thing as it falls. He can hear his soldiers occasionally shouting things and the bullets, but other than that there is a pure silence. He repeats the same phrase over and over in his mind ‘ _ There are no more than eleven _ ’. The tricky part about dealing with SCP-642, Things of the Dark, is that unless you tell yourself that there are only eleven creatures in there before you enter, they will swarm you by the hundreds. Thus, every soldier repeats the phrase  _ There are no more than eleven _ in his or her head every few seconds. It’s remarkably simple for Epsilon-11, because they’ve done it plenty of times before. Soon, he’s coming out the other side and flicking his night vision off and joining the rest of the team as the light in Sector 4 returns, darkness fading.

[1:00]

**SECTOR 5**

Onto Sector 5, the task force finds that the ground is icy. Not slippery, just cold with frost all over it. The cold increases, and Moreno can see his own breath. SCP-2076, The Sigh, is wandering through this sector, trying to get at a group of people barricaded in a room by somehow breaking the door open by freezing it. It’s an illogical move that works just fine for SCPs since they seem to have a knack for breaking the rules of nature and physics.

“Hey, Frosty!” Moreno calls, and The Sigh turns. It resembles a gaunt human with blue skin and dead eyes like they were frozen. Every time it exhales, the air gets colder. They open fire, and it’s down just like that. Moreno gestures for the people in the room to keep hiding, and they continue onwards, deeper into Sector 5.

[1:20]

Wandering through the empty, bloody halls of Sector 5, they track a signal to an empty room to find SCP-3850, Wolf-Skin, feasting on a body and ripping chunks out of it. It growls when it smells them, and turns. The wolf howls and charges forwards on its hind legs, and rushes right into a hail of bullets. It attacks Chambers, but ends up getting a gun-barrel in its mouth and a hole through its skull. After several more rounds are pumped through its brains, it makes a whining noise and slumps over, dead.

[1:41]

They find the five instances of SCP-3677, The Angels of Yahweh, terrorizing a group of fleeing scientists by breathing fire all over them. They open fire, and just like the Seraph, most of the bullets melt around them. The ones that don’t and hit their marks cause the Angels to glow even more fiercely, increasing their brightness with every bullet until they are like suns for a split second and explode into shards of light that soon flicker away and turn to dust.

[1:56]

**SECTOR 6**

SCP-843, Beings of Thought, is already getting into their heads, and they know that when they all see either their worst fears or their twisted desires. For Moreno, they’re on and the same. Every SCP laid dead at his feet. A version of him, striding closer with its gun up.

“Oh fuck off.” he mutters and starts shooting his alternate self, who shoots back. The bullets, however, fly right through him, and his alt-self looks confused. “That’s right. We’re mentally inoculated against your effects.” he says. “Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.” he starts shooting, smirking as he fills his worst fear and his greatest desire with anomaly-killing bullets that ultimately destroy it, causing it to turn to black smoke. “Everyone got theirs?” he asks, scanning the rest of the team. They nod. “Alright, let’s go.”

[2:21]

They see the dark haired woman in a dress standing in front of them in the vacant hallway filled with bloodless corpses. SCP-380, The Witch. She shoots into the air and flies around towards them, but they fire hundreds of bullets at them. Gardener rolls out of the way to stop her stealing his soul and they keep shooting at her. For every ten bullets they fire, only one hits. And for every ten bullets that hit, only one actually seems to do any damage. Most of them pass through her. She goes for Moore again, but he dodges her too and they keep firing. Watkins pulls the pin on a grenade, holds it for a moment, and then lobs it, blowing The Witch to bits.

“We could have opened with that.” Chambers says.

“Too late now. Let’s keep moving.” Moreno says.

[2:51]

The next SCP they find, and the last one in Sector 6, is SCP-2912, The Blood Fae. It’s just standing there, eating someone’s head with its near lamprey mouth of a face. Its white pantsuit has been stained completely red with blood and its making a strange noise that’s somewhere between gasping and moaning with an undertone of screaming.

“Oh right, this one.” Simmons says.

As it walks towards them on bloody feet, they raise their guns and kill it in a couple shots.

[3:04]

“Oh. There goes my second song.” Moreno says. “Come on. Let’s keep going.” He keeps moving towards Sector 7, the other trailing behind him. “Isn’t this fun?” he asks. “Because I’m having fun, guys. Come on!” he laughs and jogs forwards.

“Sometimes I forget how much of a megalomaniac he can be.” Anderson says.

“Oh boy, is he ever.” Lowe says.

* * *

Rose and Kanaya creep through the bowels of the facility, through the old and misused service tunnels or whatever these are.

“Where are we even going?” Kanaya asks Rose.

“I don’t know.” Rose says. “But you feel it, don’t you? That pull.”

“Yes, I feel it.” Kanaya says. “Like we’re being drawn forwards.”

“Yeah.” Rose says. “Besides, I feel like the answers are this way. Let’s keep going.”

They wander in silence for a while through the dark until the tunnel leads them into a room where a brunette woman is talking to

_ An adult Rose, Kanaya, John, and Aradia _ .

“What the fuck?” Kanaya whispers in shock. The brunette woman turns and speaks.

“Oh good, you finally made it. I was wondering when you would. You were taking forever.” she says. She sighs. “Forever.”

“Goodness Libra, you really can be impatient.” Adult Rose says.

“What the hell is going on?” Rose asks.

“Well, sit back girls.” ‘Libra’ says. “Allow me to explain.”

* * *

[ “That’s a lot of zombies.” Gardener says. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvKjpGP6P5Y)

[0:00]

**SECTOR 7**

Sector 7’s first room is clogged with hundreds of instances generated by SCP-008, Zombie Apocalypse. They’re all just standing around, moaning and groaning and whatever else. “Then we’ll shoot all of them.” Moreno says, hefting his gun and taking aim.

[0:15]

The twelve members of Epsilon-11 raise their guns and start to fire into the horde of zombies, taking down dozens of them at a time. Blood, brains, gore, and flesh spills everywhere, further staining the reddened floor with entrails as they clear out the zombies surprisingly easily.

“That was quick.” Moore comments.

“Yes, well, they didn’t really have much time to fight back.” Moreno says. “Come on.”

[0:57]

Rounding the corner deeper into the sector, they find the four instances of SCP-254, Vampire (s), plural this time. “Open fire!” Moreno shouts, and the soldiers start shooting. One of them goes down quickly and pretty easily. The other three try to crawl up the walls to the ceilings. One of them gets picked off on the way up and a second as soon as it reaches the ceiling. The last one of them drops to try and suck Watkins’ blood, but he aims straight up and blows a hole through its eye, killing it.

[1:15]

They find SCP-758, The Great Sorcerer Jerry, zapping corpses with yellow lightning for seemingly no reason. They shoot him in the back multiple times and he’s dead in an instant.

[1:30]

**SECTOR 8**

The three instances of SCP-250, Blood Crabs, are sawing corpses to bits in a large empty room filled with blood bodies that have been chopped up. They start shooting and kill one of the creatures straight off. The second and third one go for them and just nearly swipe Goodwin’s head off. They are filled with bullets and go down relatively quickly.

“Man, we are burning through these!” Moreno shouts excitedly. He laughs.

[1:50]

Moreno mutters the lyrics to the song playing over the speakers (courtesy of him) as dozens of instances of SCP-524, The Straw Men of Potter’s Field, swarm them. They’re throwing grenades and switching to incendiary ammo and Moreno is having the time of his life. To be perfectly honest, he can’t wait to get back home and do the same thing he’s doing right now to every SCP in Tau-5.

[2:08]

“Head for the hills, yes, eyes on the kills, 5-O!” he shouts aloud as they finish mowing down the many scarecrows and move to pick off the stragglers.

“You do know that those aren’t the lyrics, right?” Anderson asks.

“You really think I care?” Moreno asks. Anderson sighs and shakes her head.

[2:20]

Continuing on, they find a room that is chalk-full of the many instances of SCP-2555, Birds of Darkness. For some reason, they seem to have brought the thing that creates them with them. It’s a crow statue.  _ Idiot birds _ Moreno thinks as he tosses a pair of grenades inside and they back up from the door. They stand back as the explosion knocks it off its hinges and the birds inside are cooked. One of them tries to fly out to attack them, but due to being on fire it dies.

[2:37]

**SECTOR 9**

SCP-4479, The Silent Bride is waiting for them in the entrance to Sector 9, waiting to stab them. Robertson catches the blade before it hits his throat, and Andrews puts a bullet in her brain, taking her down. Robertson gives Andrews the thumbs up.

[2:47]

The second anomaly that they find in Sector 9 is SCP-3872, the Shoggoth. It tries to jump them from above and melt their flesh away, but Goodwin once again makes use of his good throwing arm and lobs a grenade that blows it to bits that scatter everywhere but lose their acidity relatively quickly.

“That was easy.” Lowe says.

“No one ever said it was smart, right?” Edwards says, and Lowe snickers.

[2:59]

The next SCP they find in the rather large sector is SCP-4661, The Last Unicorn.

“So who’s going to do it?” Anderson asks.

“I’ll do it.” Moreno says. “This thing killed one of my pals in 19, and I intend to repay the favour.” he grabs a machete he stole from one of the scarecrows and coats it in Shoggoth blood. He steels himself for what he’s about to do. He steps into its view and it snorts at him. He cracks his neck. “The trees can’t grow without the sun in their eyes.” he mutters as it lowers its head, “And we can’t live if we’re too afraid to die.”

[3:50]

It charges at him, he dodges to the side, and swings the machete down on its neck, bringing it to the floor. He keeps on slashing until its head falls off. He ignores the stinging pain in his arm, drops the machete, raises the gun, gestures for the others to follow, and moves forwards.

**SECTOR 10**

Sector 10 is empty. There is not a single SCP here for some reason.

[4:00]

**SECTOR 11**

They easily kill the instances of SCP-3851, Super Clowns™, and move onto SCP-547, the King of the Violet Abyss, who’s in the same room and trying to summon an eldritch horror by the looks of things. A hail of bullets and a toss of a grenade, and he’s blown apart into nothing, his summoning ritual failing pretty badly.

[4:13]

They encounter an even dozen instances of SCP-2787, the Anomalous Wolves of Thompson Church, and shoot them all dead.

[4:20]

In their next room, they find a man screaming and clutching his head, infected by SCP-1000, Psychological Chaos. They blow his brains out, and a grey form shoots towards them. They all start shooting it and it breaks apart, vanishing into nothingness.

**SECTOR 12**

[4:26]

They find a large spider in the middle of a room as they stand on a balcony, with hundreds of insects around it. This is SCP-277, A whole load of giant insects. “‘Nade launcher.” Moreno asks, taking the grenade launcher from Chambers’ hands, taking aim, and blowing the spider to bits. As the insects focus on them, they fire hundreds of rounds at them, spraying brown goo everywhere. For some reason, their last anomaly remaining, the three instances of SCP-3196, Stalker-Slicers, decide to join the party and get filled with bullets too.

“One left.” Moreno says.

[5:00]

The group makes their way to SCP-008’s containment unit and kills all the zombies there with ease. All that’s left is a single machine with a virus inside part of it creating more zombies.

“Detoxifier?” Moreno asks, and Moore hands him a strange device. He tosses it onto the machine, and in a moment the virus is dead. He shoots the machine a few more times for good measure, just in case.

[5:12]

The machine stops making noise and instead starts making smoke as it sparks and dies.

“And that…” Moreno says. “Is how we roll.”

**Akrught Protocol Result:**

All SCPs present in Sierra-Nevada-32 have been neutralized.

“There was a calmness to their movements. Their attacks were done with such nonchalonce, and they seemed to treat the whole situation like another day at the office, unlike the panicked scramblings of the onsite security teams as they tried and failed to salvage the situation. No, these men and women were trained for such an incident, especially one of such scale. The ruthlessness with which they executed those creatures, it was as if they were doing something simple such as walking to the local supermarket and not slaughtering monsters by the dozens. In a way, there was an irony in that sense. One could almost mistake  _ them _ for the monsters in the situation. They had an aura of bitter coldness about them. Some people think that task force Epsilon-11 is just the group of people who recontain escaped anomalies. But when the time comes to purge those anomalies from the face of the Earth, they have no hesitation in doing so. They become the demons that they are hunting. At the end of the incident, the facility looked like a vision out of hell. Yet I will not be kept up by nightmares of the beasts that ravaged the installation. I will be kept up by the nightmares of its so-called ‘saviours’.”

  * Survivor’s Opinion on Nine Tailed Fox



* * *

“You see, this world has been under attack by gods for years now.” Libra explains. “Our organization, the Archangel Foundation, has been protecting it.” Libra pauses. “Personally, I couldn’t give less of a shit about this planet, but my boss won’t like it if I let it die.”

“But why were we important?” Rose asks. “And why are there two of me?”

“Because you’re clones.” Libra says. “Your lives were designed to always end at that cabin.”

“But… but why?” Rose asks. “What was the point?”

“We needed hosts for the gods.” Adult Rose says. “ _ Compatible _ hosts.”

“Then why didn’t you just use yourselves?” Rose asks.

“That’s the thing.” Adult Rose says. “We wanted to. But we couldn’t. For some reason, we needed youth. Maybe reality has a sick sense of humour, who knows.”

“So what, we were only meant to exist to die?” Rose asks.

“I’m afraid so.” Libra says in an altogether uncaring matter.

“You… you motherfuckers.” Rose says. She raises her pistol.

“Alright now, put the gun down.” Libra says.

“Fuck you!” Rose shouts, and fires twice. Her first shot misses, but the second does exactly what she wanted it to, hitting her older self in the shoulder instead of where she actually wanted to hit her, the heart. Adult Rose falls backwards and Adult Kanaya rushes to her side. Adult Aradia raises her arms, Adult John looks unsure of what to do, and Libra sighs.

“John,” Libra says. “Come here.”

“W-what?” John says, suddenly seeming very small.

“ **Get over here.** ” Libra says in a darker voice, and John gasps, his eyes glowing reddish. He walks over to her, raises his arm and begins making strange hand movements, opening a blue-edged square-shaped portal of some kind. “We could sit here and wait until Christmas morning, which is only a couple of hours away now, for the world to end, but we’re not going to do that.” Libra says.

“Maybe the world  _ should _ end,” Kanaya accuses. “If we have to depend on monsters like that, if we have to become monsters to do it.”

Libra sighs and shakes her head. “It doesn’t just affect this world. It affects all of them. All the far off planets in distant galaxies. Since I cannot afford to let the fate of your world, no, your whole  _ universe _ on the choices of some  _ angsty teens _ ,” the two words are spoken with vitriol, “We’re going to have to speed this along.” Libra turns to the portal that John made, which leads into some dark facility with four circular holes in a concrete ground. “Hradra!” she calls, and a tank of some sort slides up from one of the holes, opens, and a figure steps out, walking over to her. It looks like John, but he’s clad in metal armour.

“Yes, Libra?” he asks in a calm robotic voice.

“Finish the job.” Libra says, looking from him to the two girls. “ _ Execute them. _ ”

“Understood.” ‘Hradra’ says calmly, and strides forwards. Rose raises the gun as she steps in front of Kanaya and fires at him. Once, twice, three times, and then-

_ Click _

Rose gets knocked aside by Hradra, who extends a blade-like extension from his arm and runs Kanaya through the chest in an instant. Rose watches in horror and sobs. Tears flow and she screams in sorrow. Then she pauses. Rose blinks and is Rose no longer. In her place is Eldritch. She looks up, and Hradra knocks her out with a single punch.

When Eldritch opens her eyes, she’s in a giant metal and glass cube surrounded by enchantments and protective anomalies, in a room packed to the brim with even more enchantments and protective anomalies.

Sixteen down.

It’s over.

**Significant Entity:** The Lavender Sun

**Entity Threat Level:** 5 / Amida / Critical

**Entity Capture:** Successful

**Avoided Incidents:** Everything that Could Ever Happen, The Sun’s Children Shall Burn

* * *

After that, SCP scientists, workers, and soldiers swept the entire facility to try and resurrect everyone they could with the use of various anomalies involving resurrection. Now, the 16 people in charge of the Solomon Project sit at a table having been returned to life. At the head of the table sits a version of John with darker eyes and a strange aura around him. His name is John Umbra. Libra and the troll Terezi are standing at both his sides.

“So is it just me, or does anyone else feel overwhelmed with guilt by what we’ve done?” Sollux finally says, breaking the silence. Everyone slowly raises their hands.

“Great.” Rose says. “This hurts so much.”

“Why were we so apathetic about the deaths of those kids?” Dave asks.

“We’ve been mimicking a plotline.” Umbra says.

“Think it was Shade?” Libra asks.

“You bite your tongue, Libra.” Umbra hisses. “He would never do that.”

“Wouldn’t he?” Libra asks. “Of the six Children of god, you buried four, one went rogue, and the last one, Shade… went missing. Who’s to say he didn’t go rogue like his brother.”

Umbra stands, turns to her, and literally  _ snarls _ . “Shade would never do that.” he repeats. “Someone must have forced him.” he says.

“How can you be so sure?” Libra hesitantly asks, and Umbra sighs.

“God, you annoy me so much sometimes Libra. I will cherish the day when you die.” Umbra says. Libra gulps, actually seeming just a tad bit frightened by him. Umbra sits down again.

“So…” John says. “What’s the answer?”

“A-da-da-da.” Umbra makes a strange sound with his mouth. “Quiet. I’m thinking.” he pauses, and everyone waits in silence for him to speak again. “Of course,” he says. “He’s been manipulating you since the very beginning. Not since a quarter of the way through.”

“You know it’s Shade, but he clearly did it himself.” Libra says.

“Can it Libra, or I’ll show you which of us is better at mental manipulation.” Umbra says.

“Manipulating us?” Rose asks.

“Yes.” Umbra says, nodding. “You would care if you were in control. You would care about the lives you were taking. But we’ve always been mimicking Cabin in the Woods.”

“What’s Cabin in the Woods?” Tavros asks.

“Oh, it’s a film.” Umbra says. “You guys don’t have that? It’s a brilliant horror movie satire, ingenious. But I digress. The people there never cared, so therefore you never cared.”

“What do you mean?” Jade asks.

“You were given the illusion of free will.” Umbra explains. “If you had been in control, you would have been silent throughout every operation. You would be wracked with guilt at what you had done, and it would slowly consume you. Just as it’s consuming you right now.” they all shift uncomfortably in their seats. “The lives you had needlessly taken. It would destroy you. You would watch them, and would cry, no you would weep… weep like some… some grandmother.”

“Umbra, you’re quoting lines again.” Terezi says. Umbra ignores her.

“And you would go home at the end of the day putting on a smile, a happy face for your family.” he continues. “But you would be broken inside. Broken by what you had done. When it was all over, you would go home, start your own lives.”

Now, Terezi speaks. “But the guilt of what you had done would never truly leave you.” she says. “And I know for a fact that several of you would commit suicide out of guilt, or a twisted sense of justice. I suppose in that sense, he almost saved you. Almost. But it’s all flooding in now.

“If you want, I can take the pain away.” Umbra says. “Make it easier. You do not want the deaths of 240 teens and the possession of 16 others on your conscience. Anyone?”

Everyone slowly raises their hands, except for John.

“You remember this, don’t you?” John cautiously asks. “No wonder you sent one of our splits to come and check it out.” all eyes go to John.

“You are who I think you are, aren’t you?” Rose asks. “The past Administrator? Hopping through the worlds, doing good?” John shifts uncomfortably.

“Apparently.” John says.

“He is.” Umbra says. “Take it from me, I was him.” he pauses. “Ish.” he adds.

Everyone lets the reveal sink in. Rose stands at some point. “Why did you help us?” she asks.

“Because we help people who can’t help themselves.” Umbra says. “Well, I do it less. I do all the bad stuff, same with Libra here. It kept her occupied to sit and watch kids die for months.”

“I get that, but… why?” Rose asks. “There’s a second reason. Why is it?”

“Because we couldn’t let them get more power.” Umbra says. “They slaughtered their own world, and then they slaughtered each other. If they ever get any influence anywhere else…”

“We’re going to have to kill four of them, by the way.” Terezi interjects.

“Don’t tell them that.” Umbra says. “Why’d you say that?” Terezi shrugs.

“Because they have to ascend.” Terezi says. “Timeline compliance.”

“I hate timeline compliance.” Umbra grumbles.

“Yeah well, you’re all his negatives. Of course you hate it.” Terezi says.

“Anyway; everyone hold still. John, I’ll let you keep yours” Umbra asks.

Umbra raises his hand and a strange darkness exits everyone’s chests (except John’s) and molds into one dark shape. “That’s your grief.” he says. “And now it’s going away.” he absentmindedly picks up the dark sphere that results and throws it backwards into Libra’s chest. Libra hisses and gasps.

“Gah!” she snarls. “What the fuck did you just do to me?”

“Gave you grief.” Umbra says. “New to you, isn’t it Nicol?”

Libra gasps and clutches her chest. “Oh god…” she whispers, and Terezi puts a semi-comforting hand on her shoulder.

“What do we do now?” Rose asks. “And what will you do?”

“Anything you want.” Umbra says. “You know you unintentionally did bad, and I’ve left a little bit of grief behind, but rest assured; it wasn’t your fault. As for me, I’m going to get some people on the job of chasing down the person responsible. And John? You should go with ‘Rezi.”

“Find him.” Umbra says, looking across the faces of the cyborgs Hradra, Hami, Hulliol, and Hart, who resemble John, Rose, Dave, and Jade. “Find Shade. He’s on route to Universe “Five”. Help him. Save him. Please.”

“We will not fail you.” Hradra says. They step through a rift in space-time, following Shade’s trail.

Umbra sighs, and then disappears too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was fun to write at some points, not so fun at others.  
> No, it was not actually those people's faults that they were enjoying all those deaths so much.  
> And it leads into my next story, Act I:Ascendance.


End file.
